The Federal High Court in Abuja has ruled that the law does not provide for tenure of acting chairman and Chief Executive of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The court, which dismissed suits seeking the removal of Ibrahim Magu as the Acting Chairman of EFCC, held that there was a lacuna in the law by not providing for the timeframe within which a person could act as EFCC’s chairman.
Delivering the judgment on the suit seeking for the removal of Ibrahim Magu on the grounds that the Senate had twice rejected his appointment and refused to screen him to take up the position in a substantive capacity, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu held that although the lacuna ought not to be exploited to “install” Magu in office in substantive capacity without the Senate confirmation, it had given the President as the appointor “the proverbial yam and the knife to do as he pleases” with the appointment of the EFCC chairman.
The plaintiffs had argued that Magu, who has been acting as the EFCC chairman since 2015, having been rejected by the senate, was not fit to continue to serve in that capacity.
