The head of the Nigerian Financial Crimes Commission is arrested and being investigated for committing financial crime
President Muhammadu Buhari has been hiring and firing government officials lately in such a way that makes Sir Alan Sugar’s ‘You’re Fired’ look like child’s play.
He started with the leadership of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, which saw leadership squabbles almost tear the party apart at the seams.
Recently, the president has sacked and hired some diplomats. President Muhammadu Buhari dropped Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Justice George Oguntade, and the Ambassador to the United States, Justice Sylvanus Nsofor. According to the presidency, this was done following a performance evaluation.
President Muhammadu Buhari
He appointed 12 new non-career ambassadors, and promised to uphold the principle of fair representation and inclusiveness in all governance affairs, following recent complaints, which trailed the appointments of 41 non-career ambassadors that some states were left out.
In addition to sacking the ambassadors, the president fired the Managing Director/Chief Executive Adedayo Somefun, of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), along with three other directors.
It emerged that the suspended Managing Director and three Executive Directors of NSITF allegedly awarded N20 million each to themselves contrary to the rules of their board.
They were also accused of unapproved payment of N1 billion to contractors, and allegedly lavished N4.3 billion on some purported training programmes, among other allegations. As a result, President Buhari fired the senior management team.
Also, this month, Buhari appointed Nnaemeka Ewelukwa as Managing Director of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, NBET. Following an announcement a fortnight ago by the Minister of Power, Engineer Saleh Mamman, the minister announced the appointment of Dr. Ewelukwa by President Buhari as the substantive Managing Director of the bulk trader.
A couple of weeks before the appointment of Ewelukwa, President Buhari appointed new members of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) and Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC)
The appointment ceremony for FCC, FCSC, RMAFC, took place at the State House in Abuja, with other senior government officials in attendance, such as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha; Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, and Kwara State Governor, Mr. Abdulrazaq Abdulrahman.
Speaking at the event, the SGF said the federal government expected the appointees to live up to their constitutional responsibilities, charging all appointed members to perform their responsibilities creditably in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.
Meanwhile, the head of the Nigerian financial crimes commission has been arrested for committing a financial crime. Head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, was relieved of his post following an arrest by the police. It all started when Magu was “invited” to appear before the presidential panel investigating him for corruption. Magu was arrested by a joint team of operatives of the Department of State Services and men of the Nigeria Police Force and was then taken to the Presidential Villa where he was grilled for many hours. During the investigation, he was asked by the country’s attorney-general to account for “gaps or discrepancies of figures concerning recovered assets.” The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is a Nigerian law enforcement agency that investigates financial crimes such as advance fee fraud and money laundering.