By Sadiq Umar – The Senate has postponed the screening and confirmation of the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu, to December15.
The shift from December 8 to 15 was to avail all senators the opportunity to participate in the exercise.
The Deputy Leader of the Senate, Bala N’allah, who spoke to journalists after the plenary on Thursday in Abuja explained that senators who travelled out of Abuja for official assignments requested the postponement pending their arrival to enable them participate in the confirmation process.
Mr. N’allah said, “the Senate is normally guided by the time frame of the work. We agreed that today will be the confirmation of the EFCC Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu.
“But we received a lot of calls from senators who are away, who want to participate.
“When we looked at the demand and the number we felt it will be wrong for us to proceed, disregarding those calls.
“We decided to fix it for Tuesday but we were not sure if the President will declare Tuesday as Public Holiday, so we agreed to fix it for Thursday.
“We have since written an official letter to the acting chairman fixing Thursday as the day for the confirmation hearing of his appointment,’’ he said.
Explaining why it has taken the senate 5 months to consider President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to confirm Mr. Magu, the senators said it was a matter of procedure.
“Anybody who is familiar with the normal procedure of governance would have known that there are certain procedures that need to be taken for candidates to be confirmed.
“Whatever we do is always subject to interpretation but what is important is that a date has been fixed,” he said.
Under Magu, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his wife, Toyin have been investigated by the anti-graft agency and are facing corruption allegations in court.
Mr. Magu was appointed in acting capacity since July this year after the removal of Ibrahim Lamorde on November 9, 2015.
Before his appointment, Mr. Magu was the Head of Economic Governance Unit of the commission.
