Witness narrates how EFCC under Magu re-looted N1.63tn assets recovered from Maina, others

A witness, Ngozika Ihuoma, on Thursday, told a Federal High Court in Abuja, that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, under its former Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, allegedly re-looted about 222 assets worth N1.63 trillion.

Ihuoma, who appeared as the first defence witness in the ongoing trial of the erstwhile Chairman of the disbanded Pension Reform Taskforce Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, told the court that Magu admitted before the Justice Ayo Salami Judicial Commission of Inquiry that he shared most of the properties based on a presidential directive.

According to him, Magu had admitted before Salami that he shared and allocated most of the properties to his friends, associates, and colleagues under some presidential directives, but failed to make available to the commission the evidence of the presidential directive.

This was money recovered by the defunct PRTT. However, the witness told the court that he was a management consultant, noting that his firm, Crincad & Cari Nigeria Limited, was contracted by the PRTT for consultancy service.

He maintained that one of the choice properties, recovered by the PRTT and handed over to EFCC was grossly undervalued from N6 billion in 2011, and sold to a renowned lawyer in 2015 for N1billion, noting that the EFCC should be made to account for all the recovered assets.

“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, ”Ihuoma added.