Court throws out suits praying for Magu’s removal as EFCC boss

The suits seeking for the removal of the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, have been dismissed by a Federal High Court in Abuja.

The suits were dismissed on Wednesday by the court presided over by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu.

The plaintiffs, in their suits had pointed that the Nigerian Senate on two occasions rejected Magu’s appointment refused to screen him to become the substantive EFCC chairman.

Base on the above argument, they asked the court to remove the EFCC boss, arguing that since the Senate rejected him, he was no longer fit to remain EFCC chief.

But in her ruling, Justice Ojukwu held that there was a lacuna in the law by not providing for the timeframe within which a person could act as EFCC’s chairman.

She said though the lacuna ought not to be exploited to “install” Magu in office in substantive capacity without the Senate confirmation, it had given the President, as the appointor, the “proverbial yam and the knife to do as he pleases” with the appointment of the EFCC chairman.

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Magu was appointed as acting chairman of the EFCC in 2015 when President Buhari came into office and had remained the acting chief of the anti-graft agency.

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