The acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Ibrahim Magu has insisted that the deadly novel coronavirus which has killed about 2, 700 people globally was caused by corruption.
“The coronavirus is a product of a corrupt mind,” Magu said in a new video. “Somebody deliberately sat down in the lab and came up with the virus with the view to infect and destroy other people.”
“So, who else is corrupt than that? So, it is created by a corrupt mind. So, I still insist that coronavirus was caused by corruption.”
Magu’s latest claim was made days after the EFCC denied he made such claims.
Magu first made the claim at the Passing Out Parade, POP of EFCC’s Detective Inspector Course 5 cadets at the Nigerian Defence Academy, (NDA) in Kaduna on Tuesday, February 18, 2020.
Magu’s remarks were greeted with rousing applause of his audience at the event which included Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari.
“I strongly believe, your excellency, that even coronavirus is caused by corruption. Fighting corruption is like a crusade against the evils in our society,” Magu said at the event.
However, Nigerians on social media were not pleased with Magu’s remarks on coronavirus.
In less than two hours after the first video was being distributed online, the EFCC said the video which was recorded by the National Television Authority and Channels Television live at the event was false.
“This information is false and misleading,” the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said while reacting to The Cable report about the Magu’s remark.
EFCC’s first denial of the statement made in the video was later deleted in less than 12-hours after it was published.
However, the commission on Sunday, February 23, insisted that Magu was quoted out of context.
EFCC spokesman Tony Orilade said the video reports of Magu’s statement were part of “a campaign to impugn and irritate the Commission’s boss.”
“It should be noted that we have restrained ourselves from joining issues in a certain section of the media in the light of what Magu said on Corona-virus, but we are now constrained to issue this clarification.”
But in the video published by Arise TV, the EFCC boss doubled down on his initial claim that coronavirus was caused by corruption.
