Tag Archives: Ndume Ali

Senate overrules Ndume’s stance on Magu, insists he’s not ‘clean’ enough to run EFCC

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The Senate yesterday affirmed its rejection of the nomination of Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) based on the damning security reports against him.

By the assertion, the Upper Legislative Chamber nullified the claim by its Majority Leader, Muhammed Ali Ndume at the Presidential Villa on Monday that the Senate had not rejected Magu’s nomination.

After five months of intrigues, wit games and serious political manipulations among the powers that be in the Presidency and the National Assembly, the nomination of Magu was rejected by the Senate last Thursday.

Abdullahi stated that although Ndume is the Senate Majority Leader, he could not speak for the chamber as the two responsibilities are quite different.

“The call to national duty is crucial. So I am here based on a series of calls and text messages from you about what you thought are conflicting messages. It has become critical for the senate to clarify issues. The eighth Senate believes in its integrity; we uphold and promote the rule of law which is the basic thing about our democracy. We are committed to doing things differently to stabilise the polity in the collective interest of Nigerians.

“I would like to make the following clarifications: I’m holding the votes and proceeding of Thursday. We had two votes and proceeding because we had to go into a joint session to receive Buhari.

Our votes and proceedings are the official records of what transpired in the chamber. I briefed you on Thursday to the effect that the senate was announcing that in view of security reports, we were unable to confirm Magu. We then rejected and returned the nomination to Buhari for further action.

“Media reports emerging, especially from interviews granted by Senator Ndume meant that we have to clarify issues. For the records, I am the official spokesman of the Senate and I intend to discharge this with honour and integrity because the sanctity of the institution is crucial to the sustenance of democracy.

“I have only one point of reference, which is, the votes and proceedings. The Senate deliberated on the nomination of Magu for the position of EFCC chairman with regard to security report available, but referred the other nominees for screening since nothing much was found about them.

“This is the only official position of the Senate. What I say, I say on behalf of the senate. Nigerians should be guided. There is no ambiguity in what we said,” Abdullahi declared.

According to him, “ The Senate is an institution and we are working with the Constitution, and whatever rules we use are drawn from the constitution. We also want the media to be guided in the matter because of some misleading news in the public domain.”

The Senate spokesman said that “even with respect to the indictment of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), the genesis was the motion raised by Kaka and Ndume and the Senate decided to take a look at the abuses and the SGF was found to be part of the abuses.”

He said the Senate considered the only security report submitted to it and took its decision, pointing out that the Senate was not aware of any other report.

“As a routine, when you have a nominee, a security report should be given. The report we are talking about was sent to the Acting Clerk of the Senate. If you talk about two reports which one is the second one? I heard a report was sent to Ita Enag (the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters) but I am not holding brief for him. He is a liaison officer and if there is any communication, Saraki or the clerk is in charge.

“It will be unfortunate for anyone to say that the Senate will be subjected to a report sent to the liaison office.

Magu’s rejection won’t come from us, says senate leader.

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Ali Ndume, majority leader of the senate, says the upper chamber of the national assembly has not rejected Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Addressing state house correspondents on Monday, Ndume said even if Magu will be rejected, it would not come from the red chamber. He explained that Magu’s confirmation was put on hold because of a security report from the Department of State Services (DSS).

Ndume said the senate was awaiting the advice of President Muhammadu Buhari on the issue.

“Let me say categorically that the senate did not reject Ibrahim Magu. What happened was that when we selected his confirmation for Thursday, we had an issue or a letter from the Department of State Security (DSS) that could not allow us to continue with the confirmation without further clarifications,” he said.

“So, we now concluded that since we had a letter that we could not ignore. So, it was not that we sat down to take a decision that we had rejected Magu. So, I want that to come out clearly.

“We specifically asked the chairman on media to issue a statement. 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. 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.”

Back then, Aliyu Abdullahi, spokesman of the senate, had categorically said the nomination of the anti-graft czar was rejected.

“The nomination of Ibrahim Magu is hereby rejected and has been returned to the President for further action,” he had said.?

?Reminded of this, Ndume said: “I hope we are not arguing. I listened and I still listened because of this controversy that can come out.

“I’m part of the persons that wrote the short press statement which stated that the senate could not continue with the confirmation. It is different from saying that the senate rejected him. In fact, we have referred the other four to the committee.”

?On the demand for Babchir Lawal, secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), to step down and face prosecution, Ndume said the senate said the lawmakers only made a recommendation and did not issue an order.

While deliberating on the report of an ad hoc committee set up to look into the plight of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the north-east, the senate indicted Lawal for allegedly abusing his office by misappropriating funds.

But Ndume said since there had been reports that Lawal was not given fair hearing, the senate would give him the opportunity to clear himself.

“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,” he said.

“The public is interested in knowing what we as a senate had done about those allegations. The committee issued an interim report and the interim report seemed to indict the SGF, the consequences of that indictment are what they recommended, but we are not there yet because the report itself is interim. Ok, we take the interim report, we give the public until the whole investigation is concluded.

“I hear, coming from the SGF that he has not been given a fair hearing, so the hearing has not finished. We can give him an ample of time to go before the committee and clear himself.”?