• Magu: War against corruption unstoppable
From Iheanacho Nwosu and James Ojo, Abuja
Security operatives, yesterday, raided the Asokoro, Abuja home of Senate Committee Chairman on Appropriation and former governor of Gombe State, Danjuma Goje.
The raid, which started at about 5.02pm, was carried out by dozens of Mobile Policemen. There was earlier insinuation that operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were involved, but spokesman of the anti-graft agency, Wilson Uwujaren, washed the commission’s hands off the raid. “EFCC is not part of it,” he told Daily Sun.
However, Uwujaren’s statement was countered by an aide to the senator who claimed that EFCC operatives were searching his boss’ house at the time of filing the report. But he said he had no knowledge of the reason for the raid.
Daily Sun however gathered that the police actually conducted the operation. As at 7pm, dozens of mobile policemen were still laying seige to the building. It could not be ascertained how many operatives were inside the building.
Goje, who was governor of Gombe between 2003 and 2011, is being prosecuted by the EFCC for alleged N25 billion fraud. Among other charges, he is accused of illegally awarding a N1 billion contract for the supply of dictionaries to secondary schools while he was governor. He was also alleged to have paid 85 per cent of the contract sum upfront to the supplier, Real and Integrated Hospitality Company, as against the prescribed 15 per cent as contained in the UBEB guidelines when he was the governor.
Last year, the EFCC, in a Facebook post, claimed that Goje declined to showed up in a court in Jos, Plateau State.
The commission’s post read: “A Federal High Court, sitting in Jos, Plateau State, on October 4, 2016 (Tuesday), issued a bench warrant against former Governor of Gombe State, Danjuma Goje, for refusing to show up in court. The warrant is, however, to take effect by 8am on October 5, 2016, if he fails to show up in court again.”
Meanwhile, acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, has restated the commitments of the agency to fight corruption to a standstill, saying nobody would be allowed to get away with any ill-gotten wealth.
Magu told the Ohanaeze Youth Parliament and Arewa Youth Parliament during a courtesy visit that the agency remained committed to fighting corruption and ensuring a better Nigeria.
“Nobody will stop us from fighting corruption,” he said in a statement by the commission’s spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren.
The latest haul in EFCC records of breakthrough was the discovery of a huge sum in foreign and local currencies estimated to be about N15 billion in a private apartment in Ikoyi, Lagos State, in addition to other recovery in Kaduna and other parts of Lagos.
Proud of the breakthrough by the commission in the war against graft under his leadership, Magu said: “I have always emphasised we do not have the monopoly of knowledge to fight corruption as corruption is a crime against humanity.”