They lied against Magu, presidency’s anti-corruption Sagay spits

- Professor Itse Sagay says that the Senate is victimising the acting chairman of the EFCC Ibrahim Magu

- Sagay said all the allegations against Magu were all wrong and trumped up just to discredit him and prevent him from taking up the EFCC top job

- The professor also slammed Senator Shehu Sani for his comment against the presidency and for not backing Magu in the upper house of legislation

Professor Itse Sagay, the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption (PACAC), has denied all allegations leveled against Ibrahim Magu, the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Sagay, a professor of law, told The Nation that all the accusations laid against Magu by the Senate were all trumped up to victimise him.

READ ALSO: Buhari is not ready to fight corruption - PDP attacks presidency

He also slammed Senator Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna central, for not supporting Magu given his position as a human rights activist.

He also faulted Sani for the comment that “Corruption in the Judiciary and others is treated with insecticide while corruption in the Presidency is treated with deodorant.”

Sagay said: “With regards to the SGF, I don’t really know much about that. My own view is that they should give him a hearing and if at the end of it, they consider that he’s liable, then they should come to the conclusion and condemn him if they want. But they should give him a hearing. That’s all.

“I don’t really know the basis of that comment he made. I think it’s a political statement. It’s not factual.

“He’s a political antagonist of his own party. He doesn’t get on well with the governor of his state, and he doesn’t get on with the Federal Government. So it is his political battle that is colouring his statement. It’s not factual.

“I don’t know too much about the Secretary to the Federal Government, I must confess that. I don’t know much about that.

READ ALSO: Afenifere attacks Buhari for clearing SGF, Babachir Lawal of corruption

“But I know the case of Magu thoroughly. And the allegations are spurious. There is no reality in them. The whole thing was distorted to give a wrong impression about Magu.

“The allegations are all false. He did not rent a flat by himself; he was put in a house by government. So what is his business if government paid more than it should have paid?

“It’s all just cooked up to prevent him from being appointed. So I don’t see why a senator should attack the presidency for returning Magu’s nomination to the Senate.

“I expected Senator Sani as a human rights person, as far as I know, a person from the civil society, that he should have stood up for the truth. He should have known that Magu was victimised deliberately. He should have stood against that.

“He should have stood for the oppressed person who has been doing a marvelous work in the fight against corruption. But this time he stood on the wrong side.

“Maybe the Senate has its own interest which is contrary to the interest of the country. And he’s standing with that Senate in that regard. So, that’s his business.”

Meanwhile, Yele Omogunwa, a senator from Ondo state has called for the legalization of corruption.

The senator reportedly said this on Wednesday, January 25 while lamenting the high rate of corruption in the country.

Source: Legit.ng