Days after the Senate's initial stance, the Senate Leader has said the upper chamber did not reject Ibrahim Magu as the substantive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Senate leader, Ali Ndume
Speaking after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa on Monday, Nigerian Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, disclosed that the upper chamber did not reject Ibrahim Magu as substantive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Recall that
we reported last week that the spokesperson for the Senate, Abdullahi Sabi, announced at a press conference that Magu’s nomination by President Muhammadu Buhari as EFCC chairman had been rejected by the lawmakers.
“The Senate wishes to inform the public that based on available security report, the Senate cannot proceed with the confirmation of Ibrahim Magu as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
“The nomination of Ibrahim Magu is hereby rejected and has been returned to the President for further action,”Abdullahi had said.
But Ali Ndume on Monday, gave a contradictory position, stressing that the Senate had not rejected Magu’s nomination. “We did not reject Ibrahim Magu as EFCC Chairman,” Ndume said, adding that even if Magu will be rejected, it would not come from the red chamber.
Ndume who revealed further that Magu’s confirmation was put on hold because of a security report from the Department of State Services (DSS), added that the senate was awaiting the advice of President Muhammadu Buhari on the issue, and on whether to proceed with the confirmation.
“Let me say categorically that the senate did not reject Ibrahim Magu. What happened was that when we selected his confirmation for Thursday, we had an issue or a letter from the Department of State Security (DSS) that could not allow us to continue with the confirmation without further clarifications,” he said.
“So, we now concluded that since we had a letter that we could not ignore. So, it was not that we sat down to take a decision that we had rejected Magu. So, I want that to come out clearly.
“We specifically asked the chairman on media to issue a statement. What we said was that on that Thursday the senate could not go ahead with the confirmation of Mr. Ibrahim Magu and that we are in possession of a letter from the Department of State Service which requires clarification from Mr. President, who is the head of the government. That was what happened.
“Even if the rejection is going to come, it is not going to come from the senate because we have not done anything anyway.”
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