The presidency yesterday which is on Tuesday indicate that
it would not succumb to the Senate and remove Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the
anti-graft EFCC. The Senate recently refused to screen presidential nominees
for the position of the resident electoral commissioners, saying it would not
do so until Mr. Magu is removed as Acting EFCC Chairman.
The Senate had twice rejected the president’s request to
confirm Mr. Magu. But speaking at an interview with PREMIUM TIMES and other
journalists and activists on Tuesday night, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said
Mr. Magu enjoys the confidence of he and the president.
“I’m fully in support of Magu as the EFCC Chairman just as
the president is…” Mr Osinbajo said. Speaking on the Senate rejection, the vice
president said “it is up to the Senate to make their judgement. If our
candidate is rejected, …, we can represent our candidate.”
The Senate, while rejecting Mr. Magu the second time had
said it would no longer consider him if his name is sent again by the
president. But Mr. Osinbajo gave the clearest indication yet that Mr. Magu may
remain in acting capacity as EFCC Chairman for the duration of the Buhari
administration.
“I fully agree with Mr. (Femi) Falana that there was no need
in the first place to have presented Mr. Magu for confirmation,” he said making
reference to the Section 171 of the constitution. The Vice President said
although the EFCC Act requires that an EFCC chairman be confirmed by the
Senate, part of Section 171 of the constitution, which is superior to the act,
does not mandate such Senate confirmation. The vice president also described
the State Security Service’ action of writing a report against a presidential
nominee (Mr. Magu) to the Senate as “a robust expression of our institutions of
government.”
He said it shows that the administration does not interfere
in the works of its security agencies, making reference to the U.S. where the
FBI wrote a report against the U.S. President Donald Trump.
“He (President Buhari) has not interfered with what the DSS
want to say,” Mr. Osinbajo said. Mr. Osinbajo said President Buhari merely
studied the SSS (also called DSS) report and reviewed Mr. Magu’s response which
he found satisfactory.
“The president looked at what Magu said and what the DSS
wrote and he said, ‘I am satisfied with what Magu said.” A PREMIUM TIMES review
of the SSS allegations had shown that most of them were inaccurate.
The controversy over Mr. Magu, who is opposed by majority of
senators, some of whom have corruption cases, is one of the issues affecting
the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature.
The Federal Executive Council recently set up a committee
headed by Mr. Osinbajo to discuss with the National Assembly leadership and try
to end the rift. The leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC,
also got involved in the negotiation.
At a meeting between the APC leadership and the party’s National
Assembly caucus, some senators had requested the corruption trial of Senate
President Bukola Saraki be dropped for there to be a smooth working
relationship with the executive.
Mr. Saraki is being tried at the Code of Conduct Tribunal
for false asset declaration with many of the evidence used against him believed
to have been sourced by the EFCC. The Senate President has, however, denied any
wrongdoing and said he believed the trial would collapse.
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