Senate President, Bukola Saraki,
has clarified his comments about Senate confirmation powers.
Saraki had spoken on Monday at
the ongoing Orientation Programme for incoming members.
Speaking through Olu Onemola, his
Special Assistant on New Media, Saraki said he never made negative statement
about Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC).
Onemola, in a statement, said
“During the Orientation Programme for Members-elect of the 9th National
Assembly, at Transcorp Hilton Hotel Abuja, in the first lecture of the day
which was about the “Overview of the National Assembly Structure, Functions and
Inter-Parliamentary Relations”, presented by Mr. M.A. Sani Omolori, the Clerk
of the National Assembly (CNA), the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola
Saraki, served as the Chairman of the session.
“In the course of his
presentation, the CNA mentioned that one of the functions of the Senate is the
confirmation of nominees from the Executive branch.
“During the question and answer
session which followed, there were about three questions on confirmations.
“One member asked that if the
Senate refuses to confirm a nominee from the Executive, what are the options?
“Another member specifically
asked about the issue of Magu and asked why the Senate did not go to court
after it did not confirm Magu, but Magu continued serving in an Acting capacity
at the EFCC.
“When responding to the
questions, the Clerk of the National Assembly stated that he was not in a
position to answer ‘political questions’ and referred the response to the
Chairman of the occasion, the Senate President.
“In his response, the Senate
President stated that according to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, it is clearly the role of the Senate to confirm nominees
of the Executive.
“While responding to the question
of the member who asked about the options, the Senate President stated that the
options are that the President can lobby the legislature or present someone
else as a nominee.
“The Senate President also
responded to the question about why the Senate did not go to court by
clarifying that there are currently over 12 cases in the Nigerian courts about
the role of the Senate in the confirmations process.”
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