Senate Gives Buhari Ultimatum to Decide Magus' Fate, Refuses to Screen 27 INEC Commissioners

The Senate has turned down President Mu­hammadu Buhari’s request to confirm 27 nominees as Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Upper Chamber threat­ened on Tuesday that it would have nothing to do with the nominees’ list unless President Buhari takes appropriate ac­tion on the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu.

President Buhari had on Thursday last week sent names of the potential RECs to the Senate for confirmation. The President had reappointed eight of the RECs and picked 19 as fresh nominees.
But at yesterday’s plenary session, the Senate put on hold action on the confirmation of the RECs and gave Buha­ri two weeks to decide the fate of Magu before a smooth rela­tionship with the Upper House could be re-established.

In a motion moved on the floor of the Senate, Senator Pe­ter Nwaoboshi (Delta Central), urged the Upper House to sus­pend the screening and confir­mation of the INEC nominees until the Presidency decides on the fate of Magu whose nomi­nation it has rejected.
The Senate also mandated Senate President Bukola Saraki to meet with President Buhari on the outcome of its resolution on Magu and report back to the chamber in two weeks.
Nwaoboshi’s motion came after the Deputy Senate Lead­er, Senator Bala Na’Allah, read the item for consideration on the Order Paper, which was sec­onded by the Deputy Minori­ty Leader, Senator Emmanuel Bachwa and was put to vote by Saraki.
Senator Nwaoboshi had re­called a statement by the Chair­man of the Presidential Com­mittee on Anti-Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, on the Senate’s rejection of Magu’s confirma­tion based on the Department of State Services (DSS) report that the Senate merely confirms.
He said: “This is unexpected of somebody who had lectured Constitutional Law in the uni­versity, a professor of law, a Sen­ior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and of course, the chairman of such a body, to say that the leg­islature merely confirms and has no powers.”
“My position on this mat­ter is that since our confirma­tion is ‘merely’, let us suspend it until we know whether we have the power as given to us by the constitution to look into con­firmation matters or any oth­er status”.
Senator Matthew Uroghide (Edo South), who backed Nwa­oboshi’s comments, said that the Act establishing the agen­cies of government specified clearly that the officers of these agencies whose appointments will be made by the President have to be confirmed by the Senate.
Also, the Senate Deputy Whip, Sen. Francis Alimekha­na (Edo North) lamented that since the rejection of Magu, he has been terrorising the Senate through the media and call­ing the lawmakers all sorts of names.
He said: “The EFCC chair­man that we disqualified in this hall, is he acting? All the reports that are in the newspapers, he is behind them. Magu is terroris­ing us because we disqualified him and we cannot hide it.”
The Deputy Senate Presi­dent, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, noted that it was regrettable that the Presidency had decided to keep the Senate in the dark on matters that affect the integrity of the institution of the Senate.
He therefore urged Saraki to seek audience with President Buhari and register the resolu­tion of the Senate on his han­dling of the Upper House’s res­olutions.
Having listened to the argu­ments of his colleagues against the confirmation of the 27 INEC nominees, Saraki put it to voice vote and majority of the law­makers voted against the con­firmation of the RECs.
They demanded that Buhari should declare his stand on the Acting EFCC boss within two weeks after which it would de­cide whether to go ahead with the screening of the REC nom­inees.
Meanwhile, the Senate has refuted insinuations that it bought the controversial bul­let-proof Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) Range Rover attached to Saraki for N298 million.