Magu Will No Longer Be Considered For EFCC Chairman – Senate

Magu Will No Longer Be Considered For EFCC Chairman – Senate

The Senate has said it would no longer consider confirming the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu, if the Presidency submits his name the third time for confirmation as the substantive chairman of the agency.

Senator Dino Melaye told Thisday that according to Senate Rules, Order 131, President Muhammadu Buhari could not submit the name of Magu to the commission again having been rejected at the senate open session.

Magu was originally rejected by the senate for confirmation following a damning report by the Department of State Security (DSS) last December.

After Magu’s name was re-sent by the Presidency, the senate again refused to confirm Magu as the DSS doubled down on its earlier report.

“Nominations neither confirmed nor rejected during the session or within 21 working days in the case of ministerial nominees shall be returned by the Clerk to the National Assembly to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and shall not again be made to the Senate by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.

“Those suggesting to the President that after failing to scale the confirmation process twice, the President should leave Magu to be acting, are only recommending violation of the law, disrespect for due process and perpetration of illegality. All these will only undermine democracy and constitutionalism in our country,” Melaye said.

According to the senator, “Those drafters of the law who made the provision that the Senate should confirm the nomination of the EFCC chairman did not make any mistake and nobody should observe the law in the breach by getting a person into that office who has not been confirmed.

“Magu is not greater than the law creating EFCC”, Melaye stressed, adding, “Magu is not the last messiah. He can’t be the only competent person for the job out of 170 million Nigerians. Should he voluntarily decline the appointment today, will EFCC fold up?”