Magu will remain--sagAy

The chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption, Professor Itse Sagay (SAN), has declared that the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu, will remain the helmsman of the anti-graft agency whether or not the Senate approves his appointment. Prof Sagay, in a chat published in the current edition of The Interview, said that whether the Senate likes it or not, Magu will retain his seat. He said, “Whether they like it or not, he (Magu) will be there. His chairmanship will keep on being renewed. “Since Nuhu Ribadu left, we have not had a man with such sterling qualities as Ibrahim Magu, and whether they like it or not, Magu will be there until he completes his term under the law,” he said. The chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption made this comment while responding to a question on the Senate’s reluctance to screen and confirm Magu as the EFCC boss several months after his nomination by President Muhammadu Buhari. President Buhari had written to the Senate in June this year, asking it to confirm Magu’s appointment, but the senators had not been forthcoming with it. Since then he had been working on acting capacity. But despite Sagay’s assertions, the Senate yesterday rejected Magu’s appointment as the substantive chairman of the EFCC. The senators’ action was reportedly hinged on a security report they received from the Department of State Services (DSS), a sister security agency of the commission. Senate spokesman, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, told members of the Senate Press Corps, after a closed-door session which lasted two hours, that the Senate could not proceed with the confirmation hearing of Magu based on the security report in its possession, adding that the upper chamber was consequently returning the request to President Muhammadu Buhari for further action. He, however, confirmed that the remaining four nominee-members of the commission had been referred to the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption for their screening. The nominees to face Senator Chukwuka Utazi-led committee when the lawmakers resume from their recess in January 2017 are Nda Sule Moses, Lawan Mamman, Galadanchi Imam and Adeleke Rafiu. The Red Chamber had on Thurdsay, December 8, 2016 re-scheduled the confirmation hearing of Magu for yesterday over what it described as poor attendance of senators at plenary, a majority of whom had indicated interest to be part of the screening exercise. Prbxselfnetwork reports that there was confusion earlier in the day over the fate of Magu, who had showed up early at the National Assembly for the confirmation hearing along with an impressive entourage. After hours of waiting, Magu was surprisingly admitted into the Red Chamber only to be confronted with the dossier on him from the DSS. A disappointed Magu immediately stormed out of the chamber with his retinue of aides and well-wishers.   Sources told prbxselfnetwork that the security report alluded to by the Senate allegedly detailed the acting chairman of the EFCC to be “corrupt, a violator of human rights and owner of undeclared several properties”. It was learnt that a pre-sitting meeting aimed at sorting out issues before the screening went awry after the senators disagreed on the modus operandi to be adopted in screening Magu. Consequently, the plenary was delayed for about one hour as some senators and principal officers of the Senate were locked in a meeting at the Senate president’s office where Senate Leader Ali Ndume and Senator Dino Melaye were said to have sharply disagreed with one another. Our reporter gathered that while some senators were for an open screening of Magu at plenary session, some are opposed it, saying that the EFCC nominees should be referred to the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption. Ndume and Dino later exchanged words in public after the meeting at the entrance to the Senate chambers to the amazement of onlookers, legislative aides and security operatives. While all this was going on, the majority of senators were already seated in the Red Chamber waiting to commence the confirmation hearing of Magu and four other nominee-members of the commission before the exercise, listed on the day’s Order Paper, was put off.   ‘,***prbxselfnetwork***