EFCC’s Acting Chair Ibrahim Magu flunked his second screening because he has no clue about the agency’s progress, and where next it’s heading, Sen. Dino Melaye has told National Daily.
“From my own personal perspective and as a well a trained and travelled Nigerian, Magu failed the interview with his inability to answer even to schedule duties,” the Kogi senator said.
He noted Magu came for a job screening, and couldn’t give any clear statistics on how much has been recovered and expected to be recovered.
“It is an assault on our intelligence.”
Many believed the Senate was playing a hardball with President Muhammadu Buhari when it first rejected his nominee to be confirmed as the EFCC substantive chairman—and that the first DSS petition against Magu the lawmakers cited was just a smokescreen.
The reason was that a number of the lawmakers, including Sen. President Bukola Saraki, Minority Leader Godswill Akpabio, and some former governors in the upper chamber, have case files with the EFCC.
But the Thursday screening, in which the DSS ruined Magu’s chances with a second security letter, now convinced many Buhari might have lost control of his men, especially DSS’ Director-General Mamman Daura.
Saraki said on Thursday the lawmakers have played their own constitutional roles—and the buck now stops at the presidency.
“Magu seemed to have come grossly unprepared for a job interview, and failed,” said Melaye.
“Focus should be on his ineptitude even more than the weighty security report. Magu failed the screening on many fronts.”
Analysts have said it’s none of the Senate business to influence the choice of the president’s nominee. But the high-octane politics within Aso Rock appears a factor in Buhari’s choice.
The DSS boss, Interior Minister Abdulrahaman Dambazzau, and Buhari’s CoS Abba Kyari, sources say, have colluded with Justice Minister Abubakar Malami to frustrate Magu’s appointment.
The EFCC boss is said to be hot on the heels of certain cronies of the CoS complicit in the $2.1 billion arms purchase scandal and fuel subsidy scam.
Although Malami, whom Buhari ordered early in the year to investigate corruption allegations the spy agency levelled at Magu, cleared the EFCC boss, it surprised many the DSS still insisted the Senate disqualify the acting chairman.
The presidency said yesterday it was waiting for the official report of the Senate screening.