29th March, 2017
The administration described the senate as an arm of government that must be respected in any decision it takes in the course of exercising its powers as an independent institution.
The comment came in reaction to the decision of the upper legislative chamber to suspend consideration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s nominees for Resident Electoral Commissioners in protest against Ibrahim Magu’s continued stay in office as the acting chairman of the EFCC.
The Senate President Bukola Saraki on Tuesday declared that the Senate would not be intimidated by the executive over its decision to reject Magu.
The Senate has been locked in prolonged supremacy battle with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, and Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali.
Mr. Lawal and Mr. Ali declined separate summons of the Senate last week, over issues bordering on alleged corruption and non-compliance with official dress code, respectively.
But speaking in response to the lawmakers, President Buhari’s Senate liaison officer, Ita Enang, said the administration will respect the decision of the lawmakers and pursue dialogue with them.
“We will not question the power of the senators to take decision on how they want to conduct nomination hearings,” Mr. Enang told newsmen by telephone Tuesday afternoon. “We will not go fighting with them”.
Instead, “we will listen to their grievances and reason along with them,” Mr. Enang said shortly after the Senate took the decision to protest Mr. Magu’s continued stay in office.
He declined to say if the president will now ask Mr. Magu to step aside, saying he will “not go into specifics.”
Shortly after rejecting Mr. Magu penultimate Wednesday, the senators urged the president to relieve the EFCC chief of his job and name a temporary replacement pending fresh nomination of a substantive chairman.