The Senate
has said it may reconsider its refusal to confirm the appointment of the Acting
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, if
President Muhammadu Buhari provides the necessary explanation for it to do so.
It said
the explanations to be made by President Muhammadu Buhari, who had nominated
Magu, would determine whether the nominee would be considered or not.
The
lawmakers had on Thursday rejected Magu’s nomination by the President as the
substantive chairman of the anti-graft agency based on a “security
report” on him.
A security
report by the Department of State Services, in which Magu was accused of
various corruption-related offences, had caused the Senate to reject his
nomination.
The
Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Sabi Abdullahi,
on Friday told one of our correspondents that the lawmakers had taken their
decision on the matter and it was left for Buhari to take the next step.
He said,
“This is not an issue that is ambiguous and I will not take issue with anybody.
What we have said is very straightforward and unambiguous. It is not our
responsibility or in our power to tell Mr. President what to do.
“It is his
prerogative and for every action taken, there must be a basis. Let him take any
action but, of course, he will base his action on explanations. If that
happens, we will take his explanations based on their face value and see. Until
then, our decision is very simple. It is unambiguous; that is what we said from
the beginning and that is what we stand by.”
Meanwhile,
the Senate on Friday said the rejection of Magu would be communicated to the
Presidency by next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment