Dennis Amachree, a former Assistant Director with the Department of State Services, has weighed in on the ongoing interrogation of the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Tuesday, July 7, Amachree emphasized that the Attorney-General of the Federation is the supervising authority over the EFCC, similar to the oversight role of the Department of Justice on the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States.
Providing clarity on Magu’s arrest, Amachree, accusing him of assuming unilateral authority and disobeying constituted authority, clarified that the former DSS Assistant Director said the EFCC’s acting Chairman was not arrested by the DSS but by policemen attached to the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department.
Amachree added:
“I think Magu has some blame on his side. Apparently, he was operating as a law unto himself. He must be reporting to somebody. Even in the US, the FBI reports to the Department of Justice. In Nigeria, EFCC ought to report to the AGF who is now the originator of the allegations.
“When this thing came up, they knew he may not want to come, I don’t know, but he was stopped on the way to another meeting but they said he must go before the panel. He was accosted by policemen from the FCID.
“However, because they were policemen in plain clothes, many people thought it was the DSS.”