Ibrahim Magu EFCC
Senate
Ibrahim Magu EFCC
Senate yet to receive request from Buhari for Magu’s
confirmation – Lawan
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, on Thursday said the
Senate is yet to receive any formal request from President
Muhammadu Buhari for confirmation of the Acting Chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim
Magu.
Lawan made the disclosure when a delegation of the Presidential
Advisory Committee Against Corruption paid a courtesy visit to his
office at the National Assembly, Abuja.
Chairman of the Presidential Committee and leader of the
delegation, Prof. Itse Sagay, in his address, craved the
cooperation of the upper chamber in ensuring the confirmation of
the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, as well as the consideration of
several Anti-corruption Bills introduced under the Eight National
Assembly.
Sagay also informed the Senate leadership present at the meeting
that the Committee had severally received complaints that members
of the National Assembly, particularly Chairmen of Committees,
solicit monetary compensation for undertaking oversight
functions.
Responding to Sagay, the Senate President said, “Going by our
rules, any issue that was not concluded in the lifetime of the
Eight National Assembly would have to start all over again.
“As far as we are concerned, those bills would have to come
again and go through the process from the very beginning. We are
prepared to begin work on them if the bills are ready.
On the confirmation of Magu, Lawan said, “there’s no request
before this Ninth Senate for the confirmation of the Chairman of
the EFCC.
“This is a new Senate and therefore, until there’s a request to
this Senate, there’s nothing it can do.
“I want to assure you that if any of such requests come from the
President, we will play our part in the confirmation and passing of
legislation accordingly.
“On oversight, you mentioned that people complain that
committees or members of the National Assembly demand monies from
MDAs.
“As far as I know, I’m not in receipt of any complain. If any
committee asks for anything from any MDA that is not appropriate,
the law is there to take its full course.
“We believe that no committee or no member of the National
Assembly will go out of their way to ask for anything from anybody
before that committee undertakes any oversight.
“The ninth Senate has decided that we will take our oversight
very seriously. We believe that it is the best thing to do after we
pass the budget in good time.
“Therefore, we are going to hold those charged or entrusted with
public funds for implementation and provision of infrastructure and
services accountable.
“We believe that there is need to apply the resources
efficiently and prudently.
“Also, the cost of governance in Nigeria is too high. Today, we
have over seven hundred agencies of government. Many of them are
not adding any value to governance.
“We believe that the time has come to review the functions of
these agencies to determine their relevance.
“We need to look at how we are going to streamline these
agencies to ensure we free our resources in order to add to our
capital.
“The appropriation of seventy percent of our budget to recurrent
is not desirable. We have to work with the executive arm of
government to reduce it.
“Reducing them will not happen overnight because we have to get
rid of many agencies first without having to throw people out into
the labour market.”
Senators present during the visit are: Deputy Senate President,
Ovie Omo-Agege; Deputy Chief Whip, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi; Senate
Minority Whip, Philip Aduda; Deputy Minority Whip, Sahabi Alhaji
Ya’u; Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and
Legal Matters, Bamidele Opeyemi, and Deputy Chairman, Senate
Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah.
Other senators at the meeting are: Senators Tolulope Odebiyi
(APC, Ogun West); Oseni Yakubu (APC, Kogi Central); Chairman,
Committee on Federal Capital Territory, Abubakar Kyari; Chairman,
Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Suleiman Abdul
Kwari; Chairman, Committee on Water Resources, Bello Mandiya; Vice
Chairman, Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff, Francis
Fadahunsi, and Chairman, Committee on Rules and Business, Suleiman
Umar.
Signed:
Ezrel Tabiowo
Special Assistant (Press)
to the President of the Senate
Thursday, November 21, 2019