Senate To Cut Buhari’s Power To Fire EFCC Chairman
The Senate wants to limit the President’s ability to revoke the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s appointment (EFCC).
The Senate Minority Whip and PDP Enugu North Senator Chukwuka Utazi has introduced a bill titled “Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act Amendment Bill and for Other Matters Connected Therewith 2022” that would accomplish that goal.
Second reading of the bill has now been completed.
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As the bill was being discussed, Senator Utazi stated that in order to guarantee the EFCC chairman’s security of tenure, the Senate should approve the removal of any chairman who is in the President’s crosshairs, just as it does when making an appointment.
One of the main points of this amendment, according to him, is the executive chairman of the commission’s tenure security.
“The national assembly ensured that the headship had security of tenure for other anti-graft agencies created through legislative instrumentality, before and after, namely the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), by ensuring that their appointments and removal, as the case may be, were subject to the confirmation of the senate.
“With the EFCC, that was not the case. Therefore, the goal of this proposed amendment is to harmonise the EFCC with the other two government anti-graft agencies.
This will guarantee that the commission fulfils the crucial mandate that has been given to it to the best of its ability.
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Senator Utazi asserts that the bill seeks to pass the necessary legislation to limit such appointments to EFCC employees, even though President Muhammadu Buhari already addressed this issue by appointing Abdulrasheed Bawa as EFCC chairman in February of last year.
“It was understandable that its headship were appointed from outside the commission, for obvious reasons, as a new commission,” he said.
“However, the commission’s pivotal moment came when this administration, which has the fight against corruption as its guiding principle, took the trailblazing and audacious step of looking within the commission to choose the first executive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to lead it,” the author writes.
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