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The Nigeria Senate is set to whittle down the powers of the President of the country on the removal of the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and that move got a boost, yesterday, as a bill to that effect scaled second reading.
After the bill seeking to amend the EFCC Act 2004 to guarantee the security of tenure of its chairman passed second reading, it was accordingly referred to the Senator Suleiman Kwari (APC, Kaduna) led Senate Committee on Anti–Corruption and Financial Crimes for more legislative inputs and report at plenary within four weeks.
The bill which also seeks to amend the EFCC Establishment Act 2004 to subject termination of the appointment of the Chairman to confirmation of the Senate was sponsored by the Minority Whip, Senator Chukwuka Utazi (PDP, Enugu North).
In his presentation during a debate on the general principles of the bill, Senator Utazi explained that to ensure the security of tenure for the EFCC Chairman, the Senate should approve the removal of any Chairman on the firing line of the President as it does in appointment.
According to him, it would guarantee the safety and security of tenure for leadership of the commission, just as he said that the bill had become imperative since Nigeria joined other state parties on signatories to the United Nation Conventions against corruption 2000.
During the general debate on the bill, all Senators who contributed and supported the argument of seeking approval of the Senate before termination of the appointment of any EFCC Chairman by the President but differed on restricting the appointment of the commission’s chairman to insiders.
Senators who supported the bill include George Sekibo, (PDP-Rivers), and James Manager (PDPDelta-South), among others.
However, Senator Sam Egwu (PDP-Ebonyi North), called caution in order for the Upper Chamber not to make a law that would restrain persons with the required experience and capacity from outside to bring their wealth of knowledge, experience to bear in the governance of the nation’s agencies.
In his remarks, the Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan said that restricting the appointment of the Chairman of EFCC to insiders was a very good one, but the proposed law must state it clearly that the position was political.
Meanwhile, some political observers believe the bill is so that whoever comes in as the next president of Nigeria, majorly between Atiku Abubakar(PDP) and Bola Tinubu (APC) will not have the powers to remove the current EFCC boss before the end of his tenure.
