Senate neither rejected Magu nor indicted SGF - Ndume

Senate Leader, Ali Ndu­me, has denied that the Upper House has declined to confirm Ibra­him Magu as the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Com­mission (EFCC).

Senator Ndume made the denial while speaking to journalists at the Presiden­tial Villa shortly after he held a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Bu­hari.

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Ndume also denied that the lawmakers indicted the Secretary to the Gov­ernment of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, over allegations of corruption and asked for his sack.


He explained that while a last-minute security report temporarily stopped the screening and confirmation of Magu, ample time would be available for Babachir to defend himself before the lawmakers since he com­plained of not been given fair hearing.

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Ndume, who said he was on a routine visit to the Villa, announced that the lawmak­ers would seek more clarifi­cations from the President on the security report that stalled Magu’s confirmation.

According to Ndume: “Let me say categorically that the Senate did not re­ject Ibrahim Magu as the Chairman of EFCC. What happened was that when we slated his confirmation for Thursday, we had 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 cannot do the confirmation. It was not that we sat down to take a decision that we have rejected Ibrahim Magu.


“I want that to come out clearly; 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.

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That was what happened.

“Even if the rejection is going to come, it is not go­ing to come from the Senate because we have not done anything anyway.

On the reported indict­ment and demand for the sack of the SGF, the Senator said “it is not an order we are giving. The Senate reso­lution is a recommendation, it’s not a law.

“What the Senate con­sidered is work in progress because it was an interim report. It is the same pub­lic that are interested and worried to know what we have done as a Senate about those allegations.

“The committee issued an interim report and the interim report seemed to indict the SGF, the conse­quences of that indictment is what they recommended but we are not there yet because the report itself is interim.”