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Tag: Magu Probe

  • Magu Probe: Malami Declares Readiness to Testify before Salami Panel

    Magu Probe: Malami Declares Readiness to Testify before Salami Panel

    Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), Wednesday said he would be glad to testify before the Justice Ayo Salami-led Presidential panel if he’s summoned.

    Speaking during an interview on Arise TV, Malami said he has nothing to hide, thus he would not hesitate to appear before the panel to answer relevant questions.

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    Salami Panel: Nigeria’s Attorney General denies procuring witness to nail Magu

    “So, if indeed the Ayo Salami panel invites Abubakar Malami as a person or the AGF in the person of Abubakar Malami for any testimony, for any clarification, for examination or cross-examination for that matter, Abubakar Malami will wholeheartedly, gladly within the spirit and context of the rule of law be there to testify, be there to be cross-examined, be there to be examined within the context of the rule of law.

    “Our position as a government is to be submissive to the rule of law and the rule of law component requires that when we are called upon to clarify issues, when we are called upon to be examined, when we are called upon to be cross-examined, Abubakar Malami will be there and will gladly cooperate with the inquiry institution and that indeed was an attribute of the government that translated to the victory we are seeing today arising from P&ID.

    “Abubakar Malami has along the line, within the chain of the arbitral process, submitted to uncountable invitations, responded to uncountable requests for clarification of issues and indeed executed uncountable witness statements for the purpose of putting the record straight and the case of Salami will certainly not be an exception,” Malami said.

    Malami was reacting to a letter by the suspended Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, through his lawyer, Wahab Shittu, calling on Salami to summon the minister.

    Shittu had cited Section 36(a), (b), (c) and (d) of the Nigerian Constitution, saying: “Based on the foregoing, we humbly request that the Honourable Attorney General, who is the main accuser in these proceedings, be graciously invited to give evidence in connection with the subject matter of this inquiry with specific reference to our client in the interest of fair hearing.

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    Magu Probe: FCMB mistakenly transferred ₦573m to Prophet Omale – Bank MD

    “We believe this request ought to be resolved before our client is called upon to enter his defence in these proceedings.”

    The Salami panel is expected to determine the next step whether Malami and Magu would be invited together to confront one another or individually to answer various questions.

    Idowu Sowunmi

  • Magu Probe: FCMB mistakenly transferred ₦573m to Prophet Omale – Bank MD

    Magu Probe: FCMB mistakenly transferred ₦573m to Prophet Omale – Bank MD

    The Managing Director of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Adam Nuru has appeared before the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA), which is probing former Accting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu for alleged embezzlement and mismanagement of recovered looted funds.

    The FCMB chief during his testimony explained that the his bank made an error by transferring ₦573 million into the church account of one Pastor Emmanuel Omale.

    The ex-EFCC huncho was accused of allegedly using Omale, founder of the Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry, to launder funds abroad.

    The accusation against Magu read that he had purchased a property in Dubai using Omale’s name as a front— an allegation the pastor has denied.

    Nuru was reported to have said in his testimony last Thursday, that FCMB only just discovered the mistake upon invitation by the committee, which is four years after the money was posted.

    “On January 16, 2016, we made a return to NFIU which indicated that there was a transaction of an inflow of well over N573million. (N573,228,40),” the bank MD said.

    “This return was said to be in favour of Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries Account No 1486743019.

    “After that report, we conducted an investigation and discovered that the lodgement which we reported to NFIU was an error.

    “The error was as a result of the fact that we were using a bank application called Pinnacle-7. However, we migrated from that application to a newer version called Pinnacle-10.

    “Usually, when the bank intends to migrate from one application to another, we utilize weekends to carry out the exercise. The migration involves moving all the balances of customers from the previous application to the new application. The account of the Divine Hand Ministries was moved during that migration.

    “It was that balance of N573million that was wrongly posted as an inflow into Divine Hand Ministries as reported to NFIU. This error was not peculiar to Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries alone but was also ascribed to 27 other accounts”, FCMB said.