EFCC: Magu must quit to stop global embarrassment – Coalition tells Buhari
Kehinde Faleye
A civil rights movement under the aegis of Coalition for Good Governance and Change Initiative (CGGCI), on Sunday expressed pessimism that the continued preoccupation of office by the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, was denting Nigeria’s image in the international community.
The organisation wondered why President Muhammadu Buhari would continue to keep him in office, despite the overwhelming evidence of graft against him for which the Senate has refused to confirm.
The National Coordinator and spokesperson of CGGCI, Okpokwu Ogenyi, at a press briefing on Sunday in Abuja, therefore called on the president to, as a matter of urgency, send another nominee to the Senate for confirmation if the anti-corruption war is to be sustained.
While insisting that the coalition had personal against Magu, he said there was no need keeping him because the country has more capable hands to fill the position of EFCC chairman.
Ogenyi challenged the President to inject fresh blood into the on going anti-graft war to save the country from total collapse and global embarrassment.
He said, “There is need to inject fresh blood into the anti-graft war to save Nigeria from total collapse. Since his rejection by the Senate, president Buhari has surprisingly maintained a disturbing silence. ”
“We are therefore calling on President Buhari to immediately send another nominee to the Senate for confirmation as chairman of the EFCC as the continued retention of Magu in acting capacity is giving his anti-corruption drive a negative perception.
“We wish to remind Mr. President that the EFCC Establishment Act, under Section 2(1)(a)(2), states that an EFCC chairman shall be ‘a serving or returned member of any government security agency or law enforcement agency’. We then make bold to say that there are thousands of better qualified people in the Nigerian security or law enforcement agencies. Mr. President must find a man of integrity, serving or retired among the law enforcement agencies.”
The group emphasised that authenticating the allegations against Magu was not the focus at the moment, adding that the current issue was that Nigeria is dying economically and must ge saves now.
Ogenyi stressed that the war against corruption must not be built around individuals but the EFCC as an institution, stressing that individuals come and go but the Commission should remain strong.