Grace Adeleke
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has declared that the prolonged tenure of Ibrahim Magu as acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was unlawful.
The appellate court, in a judgment delivered on Monday, overturned a 2019 Federal High Court judgment which had upheld the continued retention of Magu as acting chairman despite the Senate’s rejection of his nomination as substantive head of the anti-graft agency.
The ruling followed an appeal filed by Abuja-based lawyer, Johnmary Jideobi, who had challenged Magu’s continued occupation of the EFCC chairmanship after the Senate rejected his nomination twice.
Magu served as acting chairman of the EFCC from 2015 until July 2020, when he was suspended by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The case has now brought fresh judicial scrutiny to the use of prolonged acting appointments to head federal agencies whose substantive appointments require legislative confirmation.
Jideobi had instituted the original suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja in March 2017, arguing that Magu could not remain indefinitely as acting chairman after the Senate had rejected his nomination.
He contended that the EFCC chairman had a four-year tenure, renewable once, and that Magu had exceeded the permissible period without Senate confirmation.
The lawyer also argued that Magu’s acting appointment should have ended after the Senate rejected his nomination for substantive appointment.
The Senate, the Attorney-General of the Federation, the EFCC and Magu were listed as respondents in the legal proceedings.
However, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court dismissed the suit in a judgment delivered on December 4, 2019.
The judge held that the EFCC Establishment Act did not prescribe a specific period within which an individual could serve as acting chairman.
Justice Ojukwu had reasoned that while Section 2(3) of the EFCC Act made the appointment of the commission’s chairman subject to Senate confirmation, the law did not stipulate a time limit for an acting appointment.
The absence of such a provision, she held, left room for the President to retain an acting chairman.
She also ruled that a Senate rule relied upon by Jideobi applied to ministerial appointments and could not be invoked to terminate the tenure of an acting EFCC chairman.
The judge further held that Jideobi lacked the legal standing to institute the action.
Dissatisfied with the judgment, Jideobi approached the Court of Appeal, asking the appellate court to set aside the decision of the Federal High Court.
He maintained that the lower court had erred by allowing Magu to remain in office for an extended period without Senate confirmation.
The Court of Appeal has now overturned the Federal High Court’s position and ruled that Magu’s prolonged acting tenure was unlawful.
The decision effectively reverses the legal position adopted by the Federal High Court in 2019 that the absence of an express time limit in the EFCC Act permitted the President to retain Magu as acting chairman.
The ruling concerns Magu’s tenure between 2015 and 2020 and does not affect the current leadership of the EFCC. Ola Olukoyede is the substantive chairman of the commission.
Magu’s tenure as acting EFCC chairman eventually ended in July 2020 after Buhari suspended him amid allegations of misconduct and irregularities.
Magu denied wrongdoing and appeared before the presidential investigative panel headed by retired Justice Ayo Salami.
Following his removal, Mohammed Umar Abba, then EFCC Director of Operations, took over in an acting capacity.
Abdulrasheed Bawa was subsequently appointed substantive EFCC chairman in February 2021.
Bawa was suspended by President Bola Tinubu in June 2023 and was later replaced by Olukoyede.
The latest appellate decision therefore concerns the legality of the manner in which Magu remained in an acting capacity for several years after his nomination had been rejected by the Senate, rather than the current administration of the commission.
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