Wahab Shittu, counsel to suspended acting National Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu has said the the UK court ruling on the P&ID saga shows that Magu deserves commendation not vilification.
Shittu said this in a statement made available to Newsdiaryonline Sunday.
According to the lawyer, “Yesterday’s decision of the English court again shows the result of a detailed and thorough investigation done by the EFCC led by Mr. Magu.
“It is a monumental landmark achievement occasioned by Magu’s hard work and leadership style. The judgment has indeed greatly relieved the country from the impending and disastrous effect the execution of the $9.6b judgment plus interest would have had on our fragile economy.
“The decision once more shows that rather than punish Mr. Magu over his handling of the investigation, he should be given a heroic commendation for saving the country in a huge way. Magu should be celebrated rather than be vilified. It is rather unfortunate that the handling of P&ID investigation forms part of the allegations against him. Magu which led to his suspension.
“There is no gainsaying that the evidence relied on in arriving at the decision came from the EFCC under Mr. Magu. The English Judge was very satisfied with the way and manner the EFCC carried out it’s investigation when he held at paragraphs 253 and 254 of the judgment: “what occurred might have been the EFCC proceeding at it’s normal pace in the light of the resources allocated to it, the other inquiries it was conducting and conditions in Nigeria. By comparison the position after August,2019 might be exceptional and prompted by the serious position Nigeria faced in the light of Butchers J’s decision on the enforcement application. At this point it is impossible to say.
“However, I cannot accept Mr. Mill’s (P&ID’s counsel) submission that there was no proper deligent investigation. The basic point is that there was no specific information such that Nigeria ought to have become aware of the building blocks of fraud now alleged.” Furthermore, the Judge observed at paragraph 251 that ” In my view Mr. Mill underplayed the work which was undertaken over the June 2018- August 2019 period. In particular there was the successful prosecution of P& ID and P& ID Nigeria on 19 September, 2019 based on the ground work undertaken during this fifteen-month period”. Still underscoring the commendable work by the EFCC, the Judge concluded at page 260 that: ” …the fraud is complex in character and continuing.
“Even on my preliminary examination it comprises a number of quite different strands. What occurred in this case was deliberately concealed. Especially with international advisers it engaged, P& ID wore the clock of legitimacy. In the circumstances which Nigeria has prima facie established it acted reasonably in its investigations…” The public does not know that while this investigation was on going, the investigators and prosecutors including Magu used to close from work at 1am, 2am and resume by 8am including Saturdays and Sundays. Unfortunately some of these men are currently on suspension without pay or transferred out of EFCC for doing nothing but working assiduously to save this country. They were not given any allegation or issued query. Contrariwise, the investigation against Mr. Magu and the EFCC would have caused the country to loose the judgment. This is because P&ID used the petition by the AGF against Mr. Magu to strengthen their case with Nigeria. Luckily, we have an upright English Judge who prudently appreciated the excellent and patriotic effort of the EFCC under Magu and the ineffectiveness of the AGF’s complaint.
In a related statement Shittu said, “I feel a strong desire to react to the latest UK verdict against P&ID in the context of the HAGF’S memo which triggered the ongoing judicial commission of inquiry probing the activities of the suspended Acting Chairman of EFCC Mr. Ibrahim Magu hereinafter referred to as “my client” and the vindication the outcome of the UK verdict represents in our national consciousness.
“It will be recalled that in the HAGF’S widely publicized memo to the president, the nation’s Chief Law Officer wrote amongst others against our client as follows;
“By letter dated 26th June 2018 that was copied to the Acting Chairman of EFCC, the Chief of Staff to the President conveyed Your Excellency’s directive mandating the investigation of the P& ID matter. This directive was followed up by a comprehensive letter dated 28th June 2018 to the EFCC setting out facts and documents for the investigation. As important as this matter is with its attendant threat to our national assets, the EFCC did not accord this presidential directive with any serious attention until a year after around July/August 2019 when the scale had already tilted dangerously against Nigeria.
“In view of this delay, Police were requested to also conduct an independent investigation into the P&ID matter. In the same vein, in December 2019, there was request to the Ag. Chairman of the EFCC to forward copies of all charges, proof of evidence, and judgments in relation to all cases filed by the EFCC against P&ID and their associates, copies of warrants of arrest, copies of other documents in relation to the ongoing investigations. The above documents were required by the Police to enable it interface with Interpol on this matter.
“The Acting Chairman of EFCC did not respond to my request. The above is just one out of several correspondences which institution has had cause to send to the EFCC and which were neither acknowledged nor replied. Examples of cases where the Acting Chairman either refused to respond to requests from the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and the Solicitor General of the Federation are attached as (“Annex 3’’). In total, it is estimated that the Federal Government of Nigeria lose or would have lost Forty-Seven Billion, thirty-six million, five hundred and twenty eighty thousand, two hundred and nine Naira (N47, 036,528,209.00). In dollars, the estimated amount would be approximately, ($85,008,917.43) Eighty-five million, eight thousand, and nine hundred and seventeen pence and in pounds, it would be Seventy-four thousand Pounds (#74,000.00).
“These losses would be directly linked to the lack of response by the Acting Chairman or lack of coordination and the Acting Chairman’s recalcitrant attitude to work”.
“The above conclusions from the HAGF may have been seriously questioned by the outcome of the UK court’s verdict which has sent Nigerians and the Nigerian ruling elite in a celebration mood and exposed the good work of EFCC under Magu’s watch,” the lawyer said.