Senate defers screening of EFCC chairman

The Senate on Thursday deferred  the screening of the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu, till Thursday next week.

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu had, at the plenary on Wednesday, announced that Ibrahim Magu’s screening would take place at the plenary, on Thursday.

But the Senate on Thursday, failed to screen the EFCC acting chairman on the basis of low attendance.

Although  Magu was at the National Assembly complex on Thursday, in company of a number of EFCC officials,  the Senate leadership later sent in words informing him of a shift in the date.

Deputy Senate Leader, Bala Ibn Na’Allah, told reporters after the plenary that the date was shifted to allow a broader participation of senators in the screening, adding that the attendance at plenary was low. He stated further that many senators who were away, had called to demand a shift in the  date, to allow them participate in the exercise.

Na ‘Allah said it would be wrong to ignore the requests by the absentee senators for participation, stressing that the EFCC occupies a strategic position in the heart of the lawmakers.

He explained that there were three previous attempts at screening Magu, saying that for one reason or the other, the Senate could not sit on those three occasions.

The Deputy Senate Leader said: “We agreed that today will be the confirmation and screening of the EFCC acting chairman, Ibrahim Magu but on Wednesday, we received a lot of calls from senators who are away, and who believed that they should participate, and that it is unfair for us to fix today when we know they are not around. When we look at the demands and number we felt it would be wrong for us to proceed disregarding those calls.

“Then we said let us put it against Tuesday. Again we became too unsure as to whether Monday or Tuesday will be declared public holiday by the Federal Government in respect of the impending Eid-Malud holiday,” he said.