Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has made it clear that President Muhammadu Buhari has no intention of dispensing with the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu whether or not his appointment is confirmed by the Senate.
The position of the Presidency is coming against the background of a controversies brewing between the Senate and Professor Osinbajo over his statement on the manner the Senate has been treating the administration’s nominee to lead the EFCC.
The acting President said at the inauguration of the Kaduna office of the anti graft agency today, Thursday: “Mr. Chairman (Magu), two weeks ago, I discussed the EFCC and your appointment with President Muhammadu Buhari and he told me he has every confidence in you and every confidence in the commission and the work that you have been doing. And as long as he is president you remain the chairman of the EFCC.”
He said that those who think that they were winning in fighting back against the government’s war on corruption, should wake up.
Osinbajo, who was represented by Governor Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State, said that President Buhari is solidly behind Magu and wants him to continue to work as the Chairman of the (EFCC.
“Last night, I spoke with the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who reconfirmed the position of the President and told me that as long as he remained the Acting President or Vice President, Ibrahim Magu would remain the chairman of the EFCC.
“That is the only message from the President, so those who are thinking that corruption is winning this war, Magu would remain their nightmare for the next two years or six years as the case may be.”
Governor El-Rufai had earlier said that his government donated the office to the EFCC to demonstrate its “zero tolerance to bad behaviour by public office holders, contractors, businesses and citizens.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim Magu restated his call for the setting up of prison for corrupt ones in the Sambisa forest, “where they can be kept away and have the sobriety to be truly reformed.” [myad]
