The Justice Ayo Salami panel investigating the activities of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under its suspended acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu, has stated that contrary to reports, it is yet to submit an interim report.

Tribune Online recalls that reports in some section of the media (excluding the Tribune titles) have said the panel, headed by a retired president of the Appeal Court, Justice Isa Ayo Salami (retd), submitted an interim report to President Muhammadu Buhari.

The reports stated that the panel indicted Magu, having found him guilty of receiving gifts by proxy and recommended his prosecution in the court of law alongside the suspended secretary of the commission, Olanipekun Olukoyede.

Magu’s lawyer, Wahab Shittu, had vehemently denied the purported interim indicting his client, saying that the Salami panel could not submit any interim report without hearing from his client.

A source informed the Tribune Online that Shittu raised the issue of the interim report with the panel last week, adding that the panel should invite the writers of the said reports to reveal their sources.

The source stated that the panel assured the lawyer that it had not submitted any interim report to the Presidency.

According to the source, the chairman of the panel, Justice Salami told Shittu that the so-called interim report was a figment of the imagination of the writers of the reports.

The source said: “Magu’s lawyer raised the issue of an interim report with the Justice Ayo Salami panel last week. The chairman denied any such report.

“Justice Salami told Magu and his lawyer that the reports of any interim reports are nothing but a figment of the imagination of the writers.”

The source added that Justice Salami told the embattled former EFCC boss and his counsel that they should only bother themselves with whatever came from the panel and not any hearsays.

“What should concern you and your client is what the chairman said. Inviting the promoters of the story will not serve any useful purpose as they will not disclose their sources for the story,” the source quoted Justice Salami as telling Magu and his lawyer.

When contacted on the phone on Sunday, Shittu confirmed that the Salami panel debunked the report of the purported interim report, adding that the panel assured that it was yet to submit any report.

“The panel told us that the purported interim report is merely a figment of the writer’s imagination,” Shittu said.

The suspended Magu has been in the eye of the storm since Monday, July 6 when he was “arrested” in traffic at Wuse II in Abuja by a combined team of mobile policemen and operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS).

Magu’s travails followed a damning memo written by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN, alleging some financial malfeasances against the former EFCC boss, among others, which prompted President Buhari to set up the Salami panel.

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