Magu admitted sharing confiscated properties to friends, colleagues — Witness tells court

A witness, Ngozika Ihuoma, may have opened a can of worms through certain revelations he made  while testifying before a Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday.

Ihuoma told the court that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, under its former acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, mismanaged 222 assets worth N1.63tn.

The money was recovered by the defunct Pension Reform Taskforce Team.

He said this while appearing as the first defence witness in the ongoing trial of the erstwhile Chairman of the disbanded PRTT, Abdulrasheed Maina.

Ihuoma also alleged that Magu admitted before the Justice Ayo Salami Judicial Commission of Inquiry that he shared most of the properties based on a presidential directive.

He said, “Magu admitted before Salami that he shared and allocated most of these properties to his friends, associates and colleagues under some presidential directives, but failed to make available to the commission the evidence of that presidential directive.”

The witness told the court that he was privy to the alleged misappropriation because he was a management consultant when the whole event happened.

He said his firm, Crincad & Cari Nigeria Limited, was contracted by the PRTT for consultancy service.

He told the court that one of the choice properties the PRTT recovered and handed over to the EFCC was grossly undervalued from N6bn in 2011 and sold to a renowned lawyer in 2015 for N1bn.

“One of the properties in question located at No. 42 Gana Street, Maitama, was illegally acquired by a renowned lawyer while the property was still subject to litigation,” the witness added, insisting that EFCC should be made to account for all the recovered assets.