Fraudsters using my name to extort money from governors, ministers – Magu

Ibrahim Magu, the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has raised alarm over the activities of some fraudsters using his name to extort money from governors, Ministers and national chairmen of top political parties in the country.

Exposing how they operate, Magu disclosed that those con men writes invitation letters to political office holders informing them that they were under probe.

Magu, who raised the alarm in a Facebook post on Tuesday, consequently warned political office holders to be watchful so as not to fall victims.

The anti-graft agency while dissociating itself from such letters, insisted that Magu had neither written nor mandated anyone to write any invitation letter to any state governor because they belonged to the category of officials that enjoy constitutional immunity from criminal prosecution while in office.

The post reads, “For the umpteenth time, the EFCC is constrained to alert the public to the activities of fraudsters who have been extorting money from prominent office holders, including sitting governors, ministers, and national chairmen of leading political parties, using the name of Ibrahim Magu, the acting chairman of the commission.

“Members of these criminal gangs, from available information, have been writing invitation letters to some politically-exposed persons on the pretext that such communication emanated from the office of the acting chairman of the EFCC.

“The commission has had cause to issue public disclaimers of such fraudulent letters, still the criminals are undeterred. The situation is made worse by the fact that not all recipients of such fraudulent invites had the courage to seek clarification.

“The commission urges this category of public officers to be circumspect and verify the authenticity any supposed invitation from the acting chairman of the EFCC in order not to be ensnared by fraudsters.

“Also, there have been instances in the past in which fraudsters cloned the email and Facebook accounts of the EFCC chairman and were sending messages demanding bribes from unsuspecting members of the public.”