Nigeria senate rejects nominee for anti-graft chief

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - Nigeria’s senate on Wednesday rejected for the second time the nomination of Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the country's anti-graft agency, amid allegations of corruption.

“By popular votes, the nomination of Acting Chairman of EFCC [Economic and Financial Crimes Commission] is hereby rejected,” Senate President Bukola Saraki said after a voice vote in parliament.

The parliament had last December refused to screen Magu based on a report by the country's Department of State Security, or the secret police, which claimed Magu did not pass an integrity test and that letting him head the agency constituted a threat to President Muhammadu Buhari’s corruption fight.

But Buhari brushed aside the report, tipping again the police officer for the job in January. The president told the parliament he had probed the findings of the report and found it largely untrue.

At the confirmation hearing in the capital, Abuja on Wednesday, senators took turns to puncture the record of Magu as acting chairman of the agency, including allegations of rights violations, noncompliance with court orders and corruption within the body itself - claims faulted by the nominee.

Senator Dino Melaiye said the parliament was again in possession of another report by the secret police which reiterated its earlier indictment of the anti-graft chief, a development that pointed at an unabated inter-agency rivalry as well as fierce power play within the presidency.

Both the EFCC and the secret police are agencies under the president.

Melaiye quoted Tuesday's report as saying that “Magu has failed the integrity test and will eventually constitute a liability to the anti-corruption ...of this administration”.

The senator insisted the parliament simply “cannot ignore the report of the DSS...which is like the FBI in the United States”.

Magu told the parliamentarians on Wednesday that the secret police never gave him “fair hearing” before issuing any report, insisting that his indictment was political and targeted at frustrating his confirmation.

"The issue of fair hearing is constitutional. The secret police never invited me to hear from me on these issues. As I have said, the issues raised are not correct," he insisted.

Magu’s nomination has been controversial. Local news medium Premium Times had fact-checked the issues raised in the previous report of the secret police and found them to be unfounded.

Many analysts claim he was being frustrated for daring to try powerful politicians for corruption, including the senate president who is standing a corruption trial, while some others insisted Magu was only being used to crush the opposition.

Neither Magu nor the presidency has reacted to the latest rejection.