THE Senate, on Tuesday, suspended the consideration of the 27 resident electoral commmissioners (RECs) sent to it by the Presidency over failure to remove the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, after his rejection by the chamber.
The lawmakers had, on March 15, rejected Magu’s nomination in substantive capacity, following another security report submitted against him by the Department of State Services (DSS).
Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari forwarded a letter signed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to nominate the 27 RECs but the Senate, on Tuesday, suspended the consideration of the nominees owing to the failure of the Presidency to act on its resolution rejecting Magu.
The senators decided to suspend the consideration of the REC following the adoption of a motion moved by Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, who submitted that all required legislative actions for consideration and possible confirmation of the appointment of the RECs be suspended for two weeks, in view of non-compliance of President Buhari to Senate resolution on Magu.
Nwaoboshi, who raised Orders 14 and 15 of the Senate standing orders 2015, as amended, said Magu was still being allowed by the president to continue as acting chairman of EFCC, two weeks after his rejection by the Senate.
He said the Senate should not be seen as a rubbe-stamp institution which is compelled to affirm any nomination forwarded to it by the president.
He also said the action of the Presidency was further compounded by some derogatory remarks attributed to Professor Itse Sagay,
“Recently in this Senate, we have dealt with the issue of confirmation and where are we today? The chairman of the presidential committee on anti-corruption, Professor Itse Sagay, went to the press and said the Senate merely confirms.
“This is unexpected from somebody who had lectured constitutional law in the university and, of course, a chairman of such a big body to say that the legislature merely confirms, that is, the legislature has no power.
“Look at the list here, we have eight of them here out of 27. Eight of them are for re-appointment, which means they are acting already, they are already working and they are still in position.
“For somebody of the status of Professor Sagay to denigrate the Senate over its power of confirmation and for the Presidency to treat its resolution on such powers with levity, my position is that we should suspend consideration of appointments of the 27 RECs in any way for two weeks, to know whether we have the power as given to us by the constitution to look into confirmation matters or not,” he said.
Senator Francis Alimekhena, in his contribution, said Magu was constituting a threat to senators following his rejection by the chamber.
“Magu is terrorising us because we rejected him. As a Senate, we must send serious message to the Presidency over the matter by stepping down action on request for consideration and possible confirmation of the 27 RECS forwarded to us for at least two weeks, as earlier moved by Senator Nwaoboshi,” he said.
Other senators who contributed to the motion, Mathew Urhoghide, Sam Anyanwu, Bukar Abba Ibrahim, all supported Nwaoboshi’s submission.
Deputy Senate Leader, Bala Ibn Na’Allah and Senator Adamu Aliero made efforts to allow the list get to committee stage but were rebuffed by the Senate.
When the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, put the question to vote, the senators voted in favour of the motion moved by Nwaoboshi.
Saraki said the issues raised by the senators must be looked into by the executive within the two weeks duration.
In his reaction, Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, said he would communicate the submission of the Senate to his employers.
“We appreciate the Senate, we don’t quarrel with them. We have listened to them, we have taken the points they have made and we will always listen to them and work with them because they are an arm of government,” he said.
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