Senate on Monday said it had neither taken a final decision on the confirmation of Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) nor indicted the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal.
Magu’s fate it would seems now lies in the hands of the President Muhammadu Buhari, as the Senate says it is waiting for clarifications from the President on the security report from the Department of State Service (DSS). Despite calling for the sack of the SGF, the Senate says it did not give a directive to the Executive to that effect.
Senate Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, who spoke with journalists at the State House Abuja shortly after meeting with President Buhari, said the Senate did not “categorically” reject Magu.
The Senate, last Thursday declined to confirm the appointment of Magu as substantive chairman of the EFCC, based on a security report forwarded to it by the DSS. Senate spokesperson, Aliyu Abdullahi had gone ahead to release a statement announcing that “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 EFCC.”
However, speaking with journalists at the State House, Ndume said, “No, no no. Let me say categorically that the Senate did not reject Ibrahim Magu as the chairman. What happened was that when we slated 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.
“So, we now concluded that since we have a letter that we cannot ignore, we could not do the confirmation. So, it was not that we sat down to take a decision that we have rejected Ibrahim Magu. So, I want that to come out clearly.
“We specifically asked 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.”
Recall that the presidential media aide, Garba Shehu on Sunday night issued a statement saying that the President had instructed the Attorney General of the Federation Abubakar Malami, to investigate the involvement of any top government officials accused of any wrong-doing.
According to the statement, anyone found culpable “will not escape prosecution.”
