OLALEKAN ADETAYO

President Muhammadu Buhari may not heed the call by the Senate for the sack of the Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr . Ibrahim Magu, despite ongoing efforts to end their face – off , SUNDAY PUNCH has learnt.

The Senate had last week stepped down the confirmation of 27 Resident Electoral Commissioners whose nominations were sent by Buhari for two weeks over the President ’ s failure to implement some of the resolutions of the National Assembly.

At the centre of the crisis is Magu’ s continued stay in office in acting capacity despite the fact that the Senate had rejected his nomination on two occasions.

The President had on Wednesday set up a committee chaired by Vice – President Yemi Osinbajo to look into the face -off with a view to ending it.

But our correspondent learnt on Saturday that despite the peace move, Buhari has not changed his position on Magu.

A Presidency source ruled out the possibility that the President may abandon Magu in order to allow peace to reign.

“ The President will stick to Magu. Shopping for a replacement is not on the card at the moment , ” the source said.

When reminded that Magu’ s sack is key among the Senate’s demands, the source said that is why former senators, who are now ministers, are members of the committee set up by the President.

“ The former senators are expected to leverage on their experience in the National Assembly to come up with how to reach out to their former colleagues without necessarily compromising government ’ s position on the matter, ” he added.

Chaired by Osinbajo, the committee has all ministers who are former members of the National Assembly, the president’s liaison officers in the National Assembly and all ministers who have personal relationship with the lawmakers as members.

Ministers who are former senators include Chris Ngige ( Labour and Employment ) , Udo Udoma ( Budget and National Planning) , Heineken Lokpobiri ( State , Agriculture and Natural Resources ) , Hadi Sirika ( State for Aviation ) and Aisha Alhassan ( Women Affairs).

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