Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami has accused the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu of frustrating the Federal Government’s fight against corruption.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, Malami alleged that Magu and the EFCC leadership have misused and manipulated intelligence reports which were detrimental to the fight against financial crimes in the country.

Malami also accused the Magu-led anti-graft agency of working to prevent the global financial intelligence body, Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units from lifting the suspension it placed on Nigeria and plotting the country’s formal expulsion.

The Egmont Group which currently consists of 156 Financial Intelligence Units from different countries, serves as a platform for the exchange of expertise and financial intelligence to combat terrorist financing and money laundering.

Nigeria, which is represented in the Egmont Group by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) was suspended on June 1, 2017 because it lacked independence and thus was subject to the supervision of the EFCC via provisions of Section 1 (2) (C) of the EFCC Act.

Since the nation’s suspension, Malami and Magu have not been able to agree on how to meet the conditions of autonomy for NFIU set by the Egmont Group which is needed for the country’s re-admission.

The statement issued through his spokesman, Salihu Othman Isa, is seeking for the establishment of an autonomous NFIU independent of the EFCC and has sent a bill to the National Assembly to that effect while Magu is insisting that NFIU must be part of the EFCC with mere re-organisation of its operations.

Malami, while regretting Magu’s alleged ignorance about the consequences of an eventual expulsion, insisted on ensuring the separation of the NFIU from the EFCC and thanked the Senate for passing the bill for the independence of the NFIU.

“The EFCC is now in a state of paranoia, as it dreads the efforts of the government to have an independent NFIU, which it has stood against stoically since 2006.

“As it presently stands, the NFIU staff are all deployed by the EFCC to serve in the interest of whoever is its current Chairman. This has to stop if it must conform to the new thinking and global best practice. Nigeria cannot be an island of its own. It cannot fight corruption in isolation.

“To achieve the desired goal, NFIU needs to stand alone as an agency with full complements of power to recruit its staff and an annual budgetary allocation guaranteed for its operations,” the statement read in part.

He added that NFIU’s independence must be ascertained in the new law setting up the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Agency (NFIA) to carry out its mandate of requesting, receiving, analysing and disseminating financial intelligence reports on terrorists finance, money laundering and other relevant information for law enforcement agencies, security and intelligence agencies as well as to other relevant agencies.