In what appeared to be a response to a popular columnist’s submission on the gaffe committed by the acting chairman of the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, the Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Tony Amokeodo, has lashed out at Abimbola Adelakun.

Recall that Adelakun wrote an article, titled, ‘The Real Trouble With Magu’, which was published in her back page column of Thursday, March 5, 2020, in the Punch newspaper, where she highlighted why Magu was undeserving of the position he now occupies. Also note that the national assembly has refused to confirm Magu as the substantive chairman twice.

This didn’t seem to go down well with the agency and mandated its media aide to issue a response and laundered the image of his boss.

According to him, it came as a shock that any Nigerian could claim that Magu isn’t intelligent and undeserving to be EFCC boss considering the numerous high-profile cases of corruption the agency has successfully prosecuted.

“Her description of the Acting Executive Chairman of the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission, Mr Ibrahim Magu, as a “dingbat”, “dim-witted” and a man who “did not get his job by merit” by a columnist that knows next to nothing about the operational technicalities of the EFCC and the resourcefulness of its Chief Executive, is not only brazen, but also tragic,” he said.

While admitting that Magu’s allusion to the dreaded coronavirus wasn’t clear enough, he insisted that his boss was only being metaphorical.

“His inferential linkage of the disease with the menace of corruption was not a “banalisation of corruption by relating it to unfortunate circumstances,” as claimed by Adelakun, but a figurative emphasis of the dastardly dimension and monstrous proportion, which the scourge of corruption has assumed in our nation,” he submitted.

The media aide then went ahead to dish out the rising profile of the anti-corruption boss within the country and outside its borders, while claiming that Adelakun’s postulation was another inventing form of corruption fighting back, using the platform of ignorance and sheer mischief.

Read full speech below:

Abimbola Adelakun’s article titled, ‘The Real Trouble With Magu’, which was published in her back page column of Thursday, March 5, 2020, came as a shock to me. Her description of the Acting Executive Chairman of the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission, Mr Ibrahim Magu, as a “dingbat”, “dim-witted” and a man who “did not get his job by merit” by a columnist that knows next to nothing about the operational technicalities of the EFCC and the resourcefulness of its Chief Executive, is not only brazen, but also tragic.
Admittedly, Mr Magu made a metaphorical allusion to the dreaded coronavirus in his speech at the Passing Out Parade of the Detective Inspector Course Five at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, as being a trickle-down effect of poorly- managed health care system. His inferential linkage of the disease with the menace of corruption was not a “banalisation of corruption by relating it to unfortunate circumstances,” as claimed by Adelakun, but a figurative emphasis of the dastardly dimension and monstrous proportion, which the scourge of corruption has assumed in our nation.
Incidentally, Mr Magu’s experiences as a world- renowned anti-graft fighter puts him in a better position to know the dimension that corruption has placed Nigeria as a country and his unequivocal comparison of the pestilential affliction, which coronavirus represents with corruption.
Like every well-meaning Nigerian, Abimbola Adelakun has every right to disagree with the EFCC Chairman on his views on the anti-corruption fight, but such disagreement should never assume the degree of libel, defamation of character, derogation and indecency that she demonstrated in her jaundiced opinion.
It is preposterous and patently libelous for Adelakun to impugn the hard-earned integrity of Mr Magu and assert that Magu “ did not get his job on merit”.
It may be appropriate to ask: What does Adelakun know about economic and financial crimes in the first instance? What does she know about investigation of such crimes? How equipped is she to know whether Mr Magu got his job on merit or not? What empirical facts are available to her to evaluate the performance of the EFCC boss on his job? Is Adelakun more adequately informed about law enforcement and anti- corruption fight than the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Metropolitan Police, Scotland Yard, International Police and other global agencies that have always scored the EFCC under Magu’s watch highly? Is the ability to string sentences together in the name of column writing enough competence for her to adjudge a crack detective like Magu unfit for his job?
It is incredible to read libelous and defamatory posers, such as the following, “How did it happen that someone so lacking in elemental knowledge superintends the anti-corruption initiative in Nigeria?”
“He did not get his job on merit, he knows his assessment for his continued fit for that office is not based on superior achievements and, therefore, he has no motivation whatsoever to improve his intellect.”
But the facts available in the public domain about Magu’s breath-taking achievements so far in EFCC make such a surmise by Adelakun baseless and empty. Today, the EFCC is the leading anti- corruption agency in Africa. Several corruption- bursting agencies across Africa have had their officers trained by the Commission. The record of convictions and recoveries made so far under Magu’s watch is simply unprecedented. Only on Tuesday, the FBI gave an Award of Excellence to Magu, following the collaboration between the EFCC and the FBI in “Operation Rewired”, which was aimed at tackling the menace of cybercrimes, especially the Business Email Compromise.
It is instructive to state that under Magu’s watch, the EFCC secured the following unprecedented convictions: 2015-103; 2016- 195; 2017- 190; 2018-314; 2019- 1,281 and 2020- 122. And we are still counting.
A large number of choice properties have been recovered from looters, while several billions of naira, millions of dollars and pound sterling, as well as other foreign currencies were recovered and forfeited to the Federal Government.
Do these records suggest that the EFCC’s helmsman lacks elemental knowledge?
Adelakun’s incursions into the capabilities of key figures in the President’s cabinet are regrettably insulting. According to her, “It should be a thing of wonder that a single administration like this present regime managed to headhunt, appoint, and retain people who have such a moronic grasp of their jobs. But no, all of that idiocy is pretty consistent with the character of the government that hired them”. This is simply unconscionable and unacceptable. There is no intellectuality of any form in any kind of generalisation. For the information of Adelakun and her sponsors, Mr. Magu comes top as one figure in Nigeria that not only knows his onions, but has become a nightmare to every corrupt Nigerian.
The commission is quite aware that the attack from a character like Adelakun is part of sponsored smear campaigns to tarnish the hard-earned integrity of Mr Magu and the commission. But the EFCC would not be deterred in its work by such effusion of ignorance.
To rein in every submission on this issue, Magu has no trouble of any kind. He is a seasoned investigator and accomplished anti-corruption czar doing his best to salvage terrible situations caused by corrupt practices in Nigeria. His team comprises the best and brightest we can get anywhere in the country.
To even think that Adelakun does not know the profile of the media handlers of Mr Magu is ridiculous.
Can you imagine a former correspondent with The PUNCH before becoming a columnist saying this to her senior colleagues: “Magu’s rather tepid speech about corruption suggests that he is not only defective, he is also surrounded by mediocre speech writers who operate on the same wavelength of intellection as he does and will not risk self-improvement lest they outshine their boss.”
Throwing a jab at those who could teach her the mechanics of column writing is not right. It is also not wise.
I wish to state with a high sense of responsibility that Adelakun lacks the authority to rubbish the achievements of the EFCC under Magu’s watch. For the avoidance of doubt, delivery of speech cannot be used to measure the effectiveness of the war against corruption and cast aspersions on the remarkable records the Commission has painstakingly made in the last four years.
Nigerians should know that Adelakun’s postulation is another inventing form of corruption fighting back, using the platform of ignorance and sheer mischief.
For now, Mr Magu remains unfazed and focused on winning the war against corrupt practices, including correcting columnists like Abimbola Adelakun.