As Magu maintains defiance against House over Mrs Jonathan, Reps order his arrest

Following his refusal to honour repeated appearance invitations over a petition submitted against him by the wife of former president Goodluck Jonathan, Patience Jonathan, the House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions Tuesday issued an arrest warrant against the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu.

The committee said that Magu should be arrested and presented before it on November 7.

Mrs Jonathan who had some of her accounts frozen by some banks on the directive of the EFCC as part of a corruption investigation, had petitioned the House over the matter as the freeze lingered even after a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos ordered that all her bank accounts be unfrozen.

The former first lady had sent a petition to the House against the EFCC, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), among others, alleging harassment from them.

At the continuation of its sitting on the petition, the committee, which had given Magu up to October 4 to appear before it, lamented that the EFCC chairman was showed utter disregard concerning the matter.

The panel, chaired by Hon Uzoma Nkem-Abonta , said it had sent several letters inviting the EFCC chairman to appear before it in order to provide clarification on the directive the commission gave some banks to freeze Mrs Jonathan’s accounts but to no avail.

Hon Kingsley Chinda who is one of the members of the committee, consequently moved that a bench warrant be issued against Magu to appear before the panel on the next adjourned date.

The motion was supported by all the members of the committee present at the sitting

Hon Nkem-Abonta then ruled that a bench warrant be issued against Magu.

In the meantime, the committee directed Mrs Jonathan’s lawyers to sit with the managements of Zenith Bank, Eco Bank, First Bank and Fidelity Bank to address the issue of the court order directing the banks to unfreeze her accounts.

Also, the committee cleared Union Bank saying it had fully complied with its earlier directive to unfreeze Mrs Jonathan’s accounts.

Recall that two weeks ago, the committee had directed all the affected banks to unfreeze Mrs Jonathan’s bank accounts that did not have any pending court orders to the contrary associated with them.

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