Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay has urged the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu to report the DSS to President Muhammadu Buhari.

What happened:

• Officials of the DSS had prevented the EFCC from arresting former director of the DSS, Ita Ekpeyong and sacked DG of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ayo Oke.
• Ekpeyong, who served as the head of the DSS from 2010 to 2015, had been invited by the EFCC for his alleged role in the arms scam involving a former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.)
• Oke is being investigated over N13bn discovered by the EFCC in an Ikoyi apartment.

What Sagay said:

• Sagay advised Magu to write a letter on the clash between the EFCC and the DSS to Buhari.

Sagay said, “I think the EFCC should refer the matter to the President so that he can take action because the President is the overall boss and if people are misbehaving like that, preventing agencies from doing their work, then there should be a penalty for misconduct.”

Sagay added, “We all know that the law empowers the EFCC to investigate, arrest and prosecute and they have the right to interrogate and invite you and if you refuse to come, they can arrest you. So, anybody, who refuses, that is engaging in lawlessness and is trying to turn the country into a chaotic state of lawlessness which is certainly not good for the country.

“No one is immune from arrest except the President, Vice-President, governor and deputy governor.”

Sagay disagreed with those saying the EFCC should have written to the DSS before attempting to arrest the former DG.

He said, “The DSS procedures do not supersede the laws of the land. The EFCC Act does not require the agency writing to anybody first. They cannot make a law that supersedes that of the National Assembly. The excuses of the DSS are just a way of covering up sheer lawlessness.”

Azeez