Bishop Seun Adeoye, the Lead Bishop of the Worldwide Anglican Church in Nigeria, has reacted to the arrest of the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, by the Directorate of State Security as a development that confirmed his statement on Sunday that Nigeria was horribly stinking of corrupt practices under the present administration.
The cleric, who also doubled as the spokesperson for World Bishops Council (WBC), Africa in a statement in Osogbo, Osun State, explained that within seven days he issued two releases about the unhelpfulness of EFCC in a petition of alleged $7.5m fraud discovered at Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation.
He said, “Just last Sunday, I signed a statement titled ‘Let’s weep for Nigeria’ and I lamented that efforts by some few courageous Nigerians to help in the fight against corruption in the country were not being encouraged as anti-grafts bodies’ activities, in particular the EFCC revealed to be slow and selective.
“I have earlier in a statement on behalf of The Lightbearers on July 2nd told the world and indeed President Muhammadu Buhari that his government’s fight against corruption was being held down by some powerful individuals in Nigeria and I cited a case of a fresh fraud running to $7.5 million about N2.7 billion in NNPC.
“This case was straightforward but Magu’s EFCC just turned deaf ears to the matter. A whistleblower, one Alhaji Ibrahim Farouk gave details of how an alleged monumental insurance fraud on the 2020/2021 NNPC insurance renewals was perpetrated.
“He sent his petition to Magu. He gave a detailed account of how the premium for the insurance of corporation for the 2020/2021 was inflated by over 20 percent of the original figure and how the brokers to the business during a meeting held early February this year in London raised objection and pointed out the discrepancy which amounted to about $7.5m.
“Farouk disclosed that the brokers insisted that the action was not right and it was done at the expense of NNPC but back in Nigeria, the insurers and the management of NNPC signed off the documents with the inflated premium. This is just of many other petitions left unattended to.”
The cleric said God was now furious with all Nigerian commonwealth thieves and those who compromised with them as more heads would roll, while adding that no matter how powerful those stealing the nation’s public funds are, they will be caught, punished and put to shame.
According to him, God cannot be pleased seeing majority of Nigerians wallowing in abject poverty while some few individuals will covet what belong to all and “now that Magu is gone, I sincerely hope that not only the NNPC petitions will be looked into, other petitions lying in his office will be investigated as well”.
