Embattled chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has threatened to go on hunger strike if he is not released from detention.
According to a report by Vanguard, Magu is facing fresh corruption allegations from Nigerians within and outside the country.
The report quoted a source who disclosed that Magu may not be released from detention until he responds satisfactorily to all allegations against him.
The source said: “You are aware that they (detectives) have searched his house. Detectives that carried out the search combed his house. It was after the search that they arrested seven of his aides as part of the probe.
“Justice Salami is simply carrying out stern instructions from the Presidency over the issue of Magu and it was after he discovered that it will be virtually impossible to grant him bail that Magu started threatening to go on hunger strike, with a view to drawing public sympathy.
“However, it was learned that when the Presidency got information about his plans to go on strike, in insisted that the embattled EFCC acting chairman will not be released until he returns all the money he was accused of misappropriating.”
A day after Mr Magu was arrested, he was suspended from office, according to multiple sources briefed on the matter. Since the suspension, however, there has been no official announcement on it or on who would head the EFCC in the interim.
At the EFCC headquarters in Abuja, Mr Olukoyede and the commission’s director of operations, Mohammed Umar, continue to supervise the agency, with neither of them being formally appointed as acting head of the agency yet.
On the same day Mr Magu was suspended, a combined team of riot policemen and operatives of the State Security Services (SSS) searched his house in Karu, Abuja.
