The acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu has cried out over an alleged plot to frame him with ownership of assets abroad.
In a statement on Wednesday, the anti-graft czar said “shadowy interests at the receiving end” of the agency’s anti-corruption campaign were behind the scheme.
According to him, the alleged plot is aimed at tainting his “unblemished integrity” and make him an object of public ridicule.
“Those behind the plot, which is believed to be part of a grand design to discredit the anti-graft czar, have allegedly finalised plans to name Magu as the owner of choice properties in exotic locations abroad,” he said in the statement issued on his behalf by Wilson Uwujaren, spokesman of the commission.
“The commission has information that the desperate cabal could take their gambit to the ridiculous extent of purchasing properties and registering them in the name of Ibrahim Magu to make the plot believable.
“They are also prepared to sponsor some political hirelings who would come out openly to claim they have information about the property acquisitions.
“The commission, however, wishes to alert the public that Magu has no interest in any property whatsoever outside Nigeria.
“He has neither bought a house anywhere outside Nigeria nor commissioned any person or corporate body to acquire property in his name or any name remotely linked to him.
“The latest plot is coming many months after the commission similarly raised alarm over plots by some interests to pay humungous sums into Magu’s accounts with a view to releasing the information as evidence he had been compromised.”
He said such persons could only irritate him but would not achieve their aim of getting him distracted.
“They can only irritate me, but they can’t stop me because all men of goodwill in this country know the sacrifices that we are making to improve the fortunes of our nation,” he said.
“Those who assume that I have properties abroad, can go and claim them.”