Senate Spokesman, Sabi Abdullahi
has said, no nominee from the presidency would be confirmed by the Senate as
long as Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, acting Chairman,
Ibrahim Magu remains in office.
Briefing Senate Press Corps on
Thursday, he said, Senate’s rejection of Magu had been strengthened by a court
judgement which affirmed the powers of Senate in confirmation of Presidential
nominees.
The Court judgement documents
made available to journalists showed that, a private citizen, Mr. Oluwatosin
Ojaomo in a 20 paragraph affidavit sought a declaratory order of the court to
determine if the Senate had powers to confirm Mr. Ibrahim Magu as Chairman of
the EFCC.
The plaintiff (Ojaomo)’s move was
at the instance of Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo’s earlier statement that
Magu’s confirmation might not need to pass through the Senate.
Osibanjo, a professor of Law drew
inspiration from Femi Falana (SAN)’s position that Ibrahim Magu needed not to
go through Senate if Mr. President has decided to appoint him. He cited
provisions of the Constitution, 1999 as amended to substantiate his point.
In the suit, Hon. Justice J.T.
Tsoho relied heavily on statutory provisions of EFCC Act in section 2(3) which
states inter alia: “the Chairman and members of the Commission other ex-officio
members shall be appointed by the President and the appointment shall be be
subject to confirmation of the Senate.”
“Accordingly, the import of
section 2(3) of the EFCC Act is that the appointment of a Chairman made by the
President is dependent on confirmation by the Senate”, the document indicated.
Senate’s rejection of Magu was
due to a security report from the Department of State Security Services
indicting him for corruption.
The EFCC acting Chairman was
rejected twice, first in December, 2016 and March, 2017. He was invited to face
Senate Committee of the whole, rather than facing standing Committee on EFCC
and Anti-corruption headed by Senator Chukwuka Utazi (PDP) representing Enugu
North Senatorial district.
The development was interpreted
by political analysts as being predetermined for a rejection.
Though Senate has guiding rules
of inviting nominees to face its standing Committees or Committee of the whole,
it has never been recorded that nominees of Presidents as heads of Parastatals
faced Committee of the whole without firstly passing through the standing
Committees.
Sabi insisted that the removal of
Magu will be the sole condition for confirmation of other nominees from the
presidency, adding that there were enough people in the country that could
serve in his capacity.
“Nigerians are well over 180
million and when Magu is removed, others would fill his position and this is
how the hierarchy of government agency is structured”, he insisted.
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