By Teddy Nwanunobi
Abuja (Sundiata Post) — For the second time in three months, the Senate, on Wednesday, rejected the nomination of Ibrahim Magu as the substantive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The Red Chamber, first rejected him in December, 2016 when President Muhammadu Buhari forwarded his name for confirmation.
Magu’s rejection came on the heels of the insistence of the State Security Service (SSS) that he is not fit to head the anti-graft agency because he lacks integrity.
The SSS made the claim in a fresh report dispatched to the Senate on Tuesday evening.
The content of the report was raised by a senator, Dino Melaye, after it had appeared that Magu would scale the Senate hurdle, after answering a wide range of questions at his confirmation hearing still underway.
The SSS report vigorously advised the Senate that Magu will be a threat to the anti-corruption campaign of the Buhari-led administration.
“In the light of the foregoing, Magu has failed the integrity test, and will eventually constitute a liability to the anti-corruption stand of the current government,” the SSS report, read by Melaye, stated.
An earlier report by the SSS had prevented the Senate from confirming Magu as the EFCC Chairman earlier.
Magu, who appeared before the senators, faced a barrage of questions, and he looked visibly rattled, with hanging explanations put before him by the lawmakers.
The senators challenged his suitability, given the report against him by the SSS.
The lawmakers had argued that they could not confirm him, based on security report available to them by the SSS.
But Magu questioned the credibility of the SSS, which, he said, dispatched two reports on him with varying contents same day.
“What do you say about credibility of that agency?” he queried.
It would be recalled that the SSS had earlier submitted two contradictory reports, one approving Magu’s confirmation, and the other asking that he be rejected.
The Senate had then rejected Magu’s confirmation based on the report critical of him.
