An Abuja-based legal practitioner, Johnmary Jideobi, has accused the suspended acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, and his ‘Boys” of financial extortion and criminal intimidation.
Mr Jideobi, who petitioned the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, on behalf of his client, Damjay Integrated Services Limited, accused the ‘Magu Boys’ of freezing the company’s accounts in Access Bank in 2018, without any court order.
The petition, dated July 28, 2020, along with the High Court judgment, was also copied to the Justice Ayo Salami-led presidential panel investigating the recovery of assets by the EFCC under Mr Magu.
The petition, sighted by PRNigeria, claimed that following the refusal of the bank to unfreeze the account, Mr Magu and the EFCC were dragged before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, where Justice O. C. Agbaza on November 21, 2018 declared Mr Magu’s action as unlawful, illegal.
The presiding judge ordered the commission to immediately unfreeze the said bank account.
According to the petitioner, Mr Magu refused to comply with the order of the court despite not appealing against the judgment.
Mr Jideobi also claimed that a group of officers operating in the name, “Magu Boys” had allegedly demanded N75 million from the company’s account as a condition for lifting the illegal restriction.
The petitioner further revealed that the said “Magu Boys” sent three different bank accounts, namely: Cikin Gida Nigeria Limited with account number: 1771773211, at Polaris Bank; Black and Black Global Concept Limited with account number: 0259011841 with Gtbank and Amina Kigbu with account number: 2176716071 with Zenith Bank for the payment of the alleged bribe.
The petitioner claimed that the alleged ‘Magu Boys’ gave directives that the said N75 million bribe be paid in three tranches of N25 million into the three accounts.
“It is the aggregation of these ordeals consisting of abuse of investigative powers, extortion, unlawful seizure of a citizens property and flagrant disobedience to order of the court that impelled our client to instruct that the instant petition be tabled before you now that Mr President is desirous of sweeping the EFCC clean and restoring sanity”.
The petitioner, therefore, demanded that the AGF immediately lift the unlawful restriction on the account in compliance with the court order.
