Human rights lawyer, Mr. Mike Ozekhome (SAN), has stated that President Muhammadu Buhari has no right to nominate Ibrahim Magu as the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for a third time after being rejected by the Senate twice.
DAILY POST reports that the senate had on Wednesday rejected the nomination of Magu as EFCC boss for the second time.
Reacting via a statement entitled, ‘The legal and moral issues of the second and final rejection of confirmation of Magu as EFCC chairman’, Ozekhome said the development showed that Magu was not fit for the job.
The senior advocate said, “Re-presenting his (Magu’s) name will raise more questions than answers as to why the insistence on one man. This is unlike the first instance when the Senate merely turned him down without any screening.
“That it was done shortly after the celebrated arrival of President Buhari from his medical vacation makes it more interesting and more significant as it underlines the independence of the legislature, the Senate.
“It is high time for President Buhari to look for another competent Nigerian out of about 180 million people in population. After all, there was once a Nuhu Ribadu, a Mrs Farida Waziri and a Mr Ibrahim Lamorde. Like the saying goes, ‘soldiers go, soldiers come, barracks remain’”.
He said the EFCC indeed fought corruption but failed to do so within the ambit of the law.
Ozekhome added, “Going by sections 2(1) and 2(3) of the EFCC Act, he ceases to be the executive chairman. Having left his ‘acting’ position during his proposal to the Senate, he also loses his ‘acting’ capacity. It is simply a bad case. The Senate is the only repository of confirmatory powers of the EFCC Chairman. And it has spoken. That is the beauty of the doctrine of separation of powers.”
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