Eromosele Ebhomele
The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL, on Tuesday berated the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, for saying there were no evidence linking former President Goodluck Jonathan to the $2.1 billion arms scandal for which some Nigerians are currently being tried.
CACOL asked if Magu was combining the job of a solicitor with his chairmanship reminding the EFCC that Jonathan was the head of that government and that he enjoys the glory and blame that comes with the administration.
Magu had said: “the former president had not been summoned by the commission because no document had been traced to him giving approval for the disbursement of the money for any purpose other than for the purchase of arms.”
But in his opinion, Adeniran said: “the EFCC chairman should be impartial when investigating cases that involve the former president because the formal president is the Chief Security Officer of the country and should be completely in the know of what money was released for the security purposes, not the least, for the purchase of arms and ammunition to prosecute a ravaging war.
“And if it was not properly utilised, he should be the first person, as the Chief Accounting Officer of his government to query the formal National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dansuki.
“Even the exposé ought to have come from the former president. Since Goodluck Jonathan, didn’t see result of the assignment he gave the NSA and didn’t query him, it makes him an accomplice in the act of spending the money wrongly.”
Adeniran further noted that “the EFCC chairman’s job doesn’t extend to being an advocate for any economic or financial crime. His job is to investigate any suspect in order to ascertain their level of involvement by using his prosecutorial power to get suspects prosecuted in a court of competent jurisdiction and not to defend them before investigation is concluded.
“In this case he is behaving as if the former president has hired him as a defence counsel and that is not expected of somebody who is supposed to be an unbiased umpire.”
Adeniran said the former President being the Chief Accounting Officer of the former administration ought to scrutinize everything he spent that time knowing that all approvals would be traced to him.
“So also every vice or wrongs committed by any of his officers, be it ministers, advisers or assistants, will be visited on him.
“Goodluck Jonathan definitely has a question to answer. Its either he approves the spending, sharing or distribution of the arms money directly or he tolerated it.
“And whichever he did, he is complicit and should be made answerable for his own misrule.”
Adeniran said the EFCC chairman, before clearing the former President of complicity in the Dasukigate, should come up with his result of investigation that confirms that indeed the NSA did not take authority from Jonathan before he started dispensing the money.
Source: The News
