President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to carry out an investigation into the allegations of corruption leveled against some top appointees of the President, including the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal, and the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu.

A statement issued on Sunday by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, quoted President Buhari as saying that any top government official who is found culpable will face the law.

“The attention of the Presidency has been drawn to a number of reports in the media, in which various accusations of corruption have been leveled against some top officials in the administration.

“In that regard, President Buhari has instructed the Attorney General of the Federation to investigate the involvement of any top government officials accused of any wrong-doing. If any of them are liable they will not escape prosecution,” Shehu stated.

Recall that the Senate had indicted the SGF of abuse of office and flouting of procurement laws with regards to some contracts awarded by the Presidential Initiative for the North East, PINE.

An investigation by the Senate revealed that some dubious contracts running into several millions of naira were awarded to a company from which the SGF had just resigned as Chairman only a few months back.

According to Shehu Sani, chairman of the Senate ad-hoc committee that conducted the Probe, SGF Lawal, was the chairman of the said company until September 2016 when he resigned, and that is after the contract  had been awarded and the contract sum paid. Even at his resignation, the SGF remained the signatory to the company’s account.

The SGF, however, denied the allegation, saying the senate “has developed the habit of bring him down syndrome.”

Similarly, last Thursday, the Senate refused to confirm Ibrahim Magu as the substantive Chairman of the EFCC, citing some damning security report made available to it by the Department of State Services, DSS.

According to the DSS report which was seen by journalists, Magu was said to have failed an integrity test and would constitute a liability to the anti-corruption fight of the Buhari administration if confirmed head of the EFCC.

Besides the SGF and Magu, some other top officials have been accused of corruption under the Buhari administration.

Recall that the interior minister, Abdulrahman Dambazzau, a retired army general, was said to be one of the officers in charge of Army procurement when the arms deal scam occurred.

But curiously, his name was never mentioned in the reports released by the committee set-up by President Buhari to probe the matter.