The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions on Wednesday
issued an arrest warrant against the Acting Chairman of the Economic and
Financial Crimes
Commission, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, for failing to appear before it.
It is understood that the Committee had, at different times, summoned Mr.
Magu to appear before it on a petition by former first lady, Patience Jonathan.
It now wants Mr. Magu to be arrested and presented before it on November
7, after his failure to appear before the panel despite several invitations.
The former First Lady had some of her accounts frozen by some banks
following an investigation launched by the EFCC. But a Federal High Court
sitting in Lagos ordered that all the accounts should be unfrozen.
She consequently sent a petition to the House against the EFCC, the
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), among others, alleging harassment
from them.
At the continuation of sitting on the petition in Abuja, the committee,
which gave Mr. Magu up to October 4 to appear, lamented that the EFCC chairman
was nonchalant on the matter.
The panel, chaired by Uzoma Nkem-Abonta (Abia-PDP), said it had sent
several letters inviting the EFCC chairman to appear and clear the air on the
directive the commission gave some banks to freeze Mrs. Jonathan’s accounts.
A member of the committee, Kingsley Chinda (PDP-Rivers), consequently
moved that a bench warrant be issued against Mr. Magu to appear before the
panel on the next adjourned date.
All the members of the committee present at the sitting supported the
motion.
The chairman of the committee then ruled that a bench warrant be issued
against Mr. Magu.
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