Magu: Presidency, Falana misleading Nigerians – Senator Utazi

The Chairman, Senate committee on Anti-corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator Chuka Utazi, has said the Presidency was misleading Nigerians by suggesting that Mr. Ibrahim Magu does not require Senate screening and confirmation as chairman of Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) .

Utazi, who represents Enugu North Senatorial district in the Senate, told The Daily Times in an interview on Sunday in Enugu that when Senate reconvenes on Tuesday, it will look into the stand of the Presidency on Magu’s matter.

He said the presidency cited section 171 of the constitution for Magu to continue in office but as a lawyer himself he differs on that.

“The executive has found their own explanation under section 171 that Magu can continue in office but for me as a lawyer I know that is half-truth because section 60 gave the Senate powers to have subsidiary legislation outside the constitution”, adding “the rules guide proceedings of the Senate to follow the rule book of the Senate order 131.

“So far anybody who says section 171 is superior to order 131, that person is not helping matters, that person is trying to be illogical as well as trying to pull wools on people’s eyes because order 131 did not just hang but has its life from the 1999 constitution and section 60 permitted National Assembly to make rule for the running of the two chambers”, he said.

According to the senator, if the presidency wants to engage in illegality, it should go ahead but not claim that it is from the constitution because the constitution is very clear and section 60 is not inferior to section 171.

“People like Mr. Femi Falana keep creating confusion even when they know the truth like also in the case of the suspended Secretary to the Federal Government (SGF), Babachir Lawal, which Falana initially said the Senate was wrong in its report in the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE).

“The same Falana has now turned around to say President Muhammadu Buhari was right to have suspended Lawal”, he said.

He said the executive under Buhari was only trying to preempt the Senate by suspending Babachir Lawal but that they will make public their full report on the award of contracts under the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) when it reconvene on Tuesday.