Northern Group Attacks Malami over Demand for Magu’s Sack

Northern Group Attacks Malami over Demand for Magu’s Sack

John Shiklam in Kaduna

A group under the auspices of Kanuri Collective Agenda (KCA), has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami.

In a statemen in Kaduna, the group accused Malami for alleged attempt to drag the reputation of the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu in the mud.

The minister was recently reported to have written to Buhari, accusing Magu of allegations “raging from diversion of recovered loot to insubordination and misconduct” and

recommending his sack.

Malami was also said to have included a list of three candidates for consideration as Magu’s replacement.

The justice minister further accused the EFCC boss of disclosing a total naira recovery of N504 billion, but a close associate of the EFCC boss reportedly, said Magu actually lodge N543 billion in the Recovery Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), exceeding the disclosed figures by N39 billion.

The KCA, in the statement signed by its spokesman, Malam Waziri Ibrahim, said the allegations against Magu, is ridiculous as it is a mockery of President Buhari’s anti-corruption war.

The group maintained that “By making such weighty allegation against Magu, the justice minister has only succeeded in telling the opposition and the international community that Buhari’s anti-corruption war is a farce because the champion of the anti-graft war is corruption-personified. The allegation also implies that Mr. President is running a very corrupt administration.“

According to the statement: “Magu’s anti-corruption war has earned national and international accolades for this administration, which Malami has rubbished .

“With his memo to Mr. President, Malami has provided the opposition with enough weapons to attack Mr. President and his administration.

”Indeed, even the opposition could not have made such damning allegation against Magu because no one could have believed them in view of his unblemished records.

“But when such allegation is coming from a key member of the administration who is believed to have insider knowledge of the key actors in government, the public may be inclined to believing such allegation.

”So, Malami has provided the opposition parties with weapons to rubbish Buhari’s anti-corruption war and take his administration to the cleaners”.

The group, therefore, urged the President “to sack Malami before he causes further damage to his administration.”

The statement added that “If Malami is so disgruntled with President Buhari’s administration, it will be more honourable for him to resign rather than engaging in media attacks on the reputation of the entire administration”.

The Maiduguri-based group alleged that “since the demised of the former Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari, the justice minister has capitalised on his unhindered access to President Buhari to mislead the president on critical issues affecting Nigeria’s political and business environments.”

It further alleged that ”the letter by Malami, asking the President to fire Magu was one of such letters and opinions meant to settle scores and advance his interest in this present administration.

“In business disputes, he offers unsolicited opinions as if he is a court of law. Now, he feels that sacking Magu will make him the most powerful official in Buhari’s cabinet”.

The group noted that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had already taken advantage of the situation by alleging that Malami’s memo to the Buhari has further exposed the corruption, deception and hypocrisy which they claimed pervade the Buhari-led government.

Related Articles