The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described the arrest and detention of the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, as symbolising the deeper issues of extensive corruption of staggering proportions in all facets of Nigeria's national life and the need for the President to use merit and competence as the benchmarks for selecting the substantive head of the anti-graft agency.

Besides, the group condemned the Federal Government “for peddling toxic and uncoordinated false information and outright lies on the exact circumstances of the arrest and detention of the embattled acting Chairman of the EFCC.

“A situation whereby officials of the central government including those who work in the different security forces and the EFCC will flagrantly peddle lies on whether Magu was arrested or not is a clear violation of the Freedom of information ACT of 2015 and section 22 of the 1999 Constitution which makes the media the custodians of information and to act as a vanguard and conscience of the nation.

“A situation whereby officials of government will fully peddle falsehood publicly is not ethically correct. We must condemn this tendency to elevate falsehoods and lies as statecraft in this current Federal Government of Nigeria.

“The extent of corruption in the different layers of the current administration at the Federal and State levels is troubling just as the credibility and the integrity of the process of waging the fight against corruption and economic crimes have been muddled up and muddied in the political waters to such an extent that there are persons who are immune from prosecution because of their proximity to the seat of political powers in Abuja.

“EFCC seems to be engaged in unclear mechanisms in waging the war against corruption in such a way that EFCC under Ibrahim Magu is playing hide-and-seek with erstwhile governors Rochas Okorocha and Theodore Orji amongst many other former state governors, including those of Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa who went on to be appointed as Ministers by President Muhammadu Buhari to head the Petroleum and Niger Delta ministries in the current cabinet.

“From the word go, the body language of the Federal Government is that of deception and deceit in the war against corruption but rather political witch-hunting has characterised the anti-graft war.”

In a media statement by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, the rights group said the style of waging the anti-graft campaigns under the current dispensation does not meet the criteria expected of a national anti-corruption institution in the 21st century because clearly there are many influential politically-connected persons who are treated as sacred cows including members of the so-called Presidential cabal.

“This EFCC under Magu did nothing when the late Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, came under series of accusations of collecting huge bribes from MTN and allegedly engaging in many cases of frauds and contract scams just as the EFCC has watched as the National Social Investment Scheme (NSIS) under the Presidency failed to account for how over N500 billion budgetary releases were spent.

“The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was embroiled in widespread corruption running into several billions in which the name of the Vice President was mentioned but this EFCC looked the other way and watched as the disgraced Director General of NEMA destroyed NEMA before he was fired,” HURIWA said.

It therefore asked the President to reorganise the EFCC and appoint a capable hand to pilot its affairs devoid of politics and wondered why it has taken the President this long to do the needful until this moment that his Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who, although had his own issues centred around some of his controversial official actions, had to petition the President asking him to remove Ibrahim Magu.

Malami had suggested to President Muhammadu Buhari the need to sack the EFCC boss. In a memorandum, he anchored his recommendation on several grounds including the “diversion of recovered loot, insubordination and misconduct.”

HURIWA stated that the arrest and detention of the number one anti -graft Czar shows that there are extensive networks of corrupt officials in the current administration who have all the while enjoyed protection because of their access to some intelligence on the allegations now made against Ibrahim Magu.

“We are calling on the President not to treat the scandal allegedly associated with Ibrahim Magu as ‘a family affair’,” HURIWA said.