The Presidency’s statement reads:
“We are reading reports that the EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu has been sacked. “No report has been made available to the Presidency by the Attorney General of the federation over the matter.
“The report of his sack is therefore speculative and preemptive.”
A national newspaper, the Guardian, on Saturday, had reported that President Muhammadu Buhari removed Magu.
“Not true”, spokesman of the commission, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, said in response to an SMS enquiry by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Saturday morning.
The rumour of Magu’s removal has also hit the social media and some traditional media websites in the early hours of Saturday.
Quoting anonymous sources, The Guardian said that Ibrahim Magu, may have finally been removed from office.
It said a source said Magu’s redeployment back to Nigerian Police Force (NPF) was to pave way for a fresh person to be presented by President Muhammadu Buhari as the nominee to head the anti-graft agency before the Senate.
It said it gathered that to make the situation look like a routine exercise, some senior Police officers would be re-deployed by the Police hierarchy to resume as conventional Police officers.
It was equally reliably gathered yesterday that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has already issued a leter to Magu on the development and directed that he hands over to the Director of Operations in the Commission.
Magu’s nomination was recently rejected by the Senate following allegation of graft levelled against him by the Department of State Security Service (DSS).
The Senate had rejected the nomination of Mr Ibrahim Magu as Substantive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The Chairman of Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Sen. Sabi Abdullahi, disclosed this to journalists in Abuja.
Abdullahi said that the rejection of Magu’s nomination was based on security reports available to the senate.