Investigations into the allegations against the suspended Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, takes a suprise turn as Oluwatosin Ojaomo with the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP), accuses the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami of withholding approval for the prosecution of hundreds of assets forfeiture and other criminal cases. These cases were, according to Ojaomo, duly investigated and handed over to the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation by SPIP, on the order of the president Muhammadu Buhari, in 2019. Later in 2019 the president dissolved the SPIP, but expressly directed the SGF to take over all the investigations and activities of SPIP.

However, the SGF failed to take any of these cases to court, violating the president’s directive, which is also a violation of Section 1 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA 2015.

The prosecutor of SPIP, Mr Ojaomo cited the case of two brothers, Ibrahim Tumsah and Tijjani Tumsah who allegedly retrieved without due process, eighty-six (86) expensive vehicles, and real estate seized by the SPIP on the orders of a Federal High Court. They were unsealed and retrieved under suspicious circumstances, and returned to two firms, Integrated Service Insurance Ltd and Integrated Bureau de Change Ltd, belonging to the Defendants (Ibrahim Tumsah and Tijjani Tumsah), who were previously arraigned on two counts.

Mr Ojaomo therefore advised that the prosecution of the Tumsah brothers, as well as the other cases, commence immediately. He advised this in a letter to the AGF, with reference number OOC/TOL/12N/07/2020, dated 14th July 2020, titled ‘Request for the Prosecution of Ibrahim & Tijjani, for Contravention of the Recovery of Public Property (SP) Act, 2004’.

Among the properties retrieved by the Tumsah brothers are four (4) houses in Wuse 2 and Jabi (Abuja); a quarry plant in Kuje (Abuja); 86 exotic vehicles; a Wrangler SUV, Audi ASL, Toyota Hilux van, Ford Taurus, Mercedes Benz S550, Mercedes Benz GL 550, Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Prado SUV, and many other expensive automobiles.

Magu is being investigated by the Presidential Panel of investigation after the AGF alleged that the EFCC boss cannot account for recovered loots, and is alleged to have misappropriated the recovered loots.