The Court of Appeal in Abuja has ruled that the prolonged retention of Ibrahim Magu as Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was unlawful, overturning a 2019 judgment of the Federal High Court which had upheld his continued stay in office despite the Senate’s refusal to confirm him as substantive chairman.
A three-member panel of the appellate court delivered the judgment on Monday, September 21, 2026, in an appeal filed by Abuja-based lawyer Johnmary Jideobi, who had challenged Magu’s continued occupation of the EFCC chairmanship after his nomination was rejected twice by the Senate.
The decision effectively reverses the legal position taken by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja on December 4, 2019, when she held that the EFCC Establishment Act did not prescribe a specific time limit within which a person could remain as acting chairman of the anti-graft commission.
Magu was appointed Acting Chairman of the EFCC in November 2015 by then-President Muhammadu Buhari, following the exit of Ibrahim Lamorde. An official EFCC publication records that Magu formally took over the leadership of the commission on November 11, 2015.
His name was subsequently forwarded to the Senate for confirmation as substantive chairman in accordance with Section 2(3) of the EFCC Establishment Act, which requires the President’s appointment of the chairman and other members of the commission to be subject to confirmation by the Senate.
The Senate first rejected Magu’s nomination on December 15, 2016, citing a security report from the then Department of State Services. The nomination was returned to President Buhari for further action.
Buhari later re-submitted Magu’s name to the Senate, but the upper legislative chamber again declined to confirm him on March 15, 2017 after a confirmation hearing.
The National Assembly’s official record shows that the second rejection followed about two hours of questioning by senators on issues including human rights, recovered assets, management of recovered funds and personnel discipline.
Despite the two Senate rejections, Magu continued to head the EFCC in an acting capacity.
That development prompted Jideobi to institute an action at the Federal High Court in Abuja in March 2017, contending that Magu could not lawfully remain indefinitely as acting chairman after the Senate had refused to confirm him.
Jideobi’s case was one of several legal challenges brought over Magu’s continued stay in office.
At the Federal High Court, Jideobi argued that the Senate’s refusal to confirm Magu meant that his acting appointment could no longer continue and asked the court to determine the legality of his continued occupation of the office.
Justice Ojukwu, however, dismissed the challenge in her December 4, 2019 judgment.
The judge held that while Section 2(3) of the EFCC Act required Senate confirmation for the substantive appointment of the commission’s chairman, the law did not expressly stipulate the maximum period for which an acting chairman could remain in office.
The Federal High Court consequently held that the absence of a statutory time limit created a lacuna which left the then President with discretion over the continuation of the acting appointment.
Justice Ojukwu memorably described the situation as handing Buhari the proverbial “yam and the knife” because there was no specific statutory duration prescribed for service in an acting capacity.
The lower court also rejected reliance on a Senate rule cited by Jideobi, holding that the particular provision related to ministerial nominees and could not automatically be applied to the position of acting chairman of the EFCC.
Justice Ojukwu additionally held that Jideobi lacked the requisite locus standi to institute the action.
Although the Federal High Court dismissed the suits challenging Magu’s tenure, the judge reportedly urged the President to take the necessary steps towards having the leadership question at the EFCC properly resolved through the statutory confirmation process. Magu himself later relied heavily on that 2019 judgment in defending the legality of his tenure.
Dissatisfied with the Federal High Court’s decision, Jideobi approached the Court of Appeal.
In his appeal, he argued that the lower court was wrong to permit Magu to remain indefinitely in an acting capacity after the same statute governing the EFCC provided for a fixed tenure for a substantive chairman and required Senate confirmation of the appointment.
The lawyer argued that the tenure of an EFCC chairman is four years and renewable once, maintaining that an acting appointment could not be deployed to create an indefinite tenure outside the statutory scheme.
He further contended that Magu’s acting appointment had ended by operation of law after President Buhari submitted his name to the Senate for substantive appointment and the Senate rejected the nomination.
Jideobi consequently asked the Court of Appeal to set aside Justice Ojukwu’s judgment and grant the substantive reliefs he had sought at the Federal High Court.
The respondents in the appeal were the Senate, the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Magu.
The Court of Appeal has now overturned the Federal High Court’s decision and held that Magu’s prolonged continuation as acting chairman was unlawful.
The ruling reverses the lower court’s position that the absence of an express time limit for an acting chairman allowed the executive to retain Magu in that capacity indefinitely.
Reports of Monday’s judgment have not yet published the complete text of the appellate court’s reasoning, including its detailed resolution of every ground of appeal and the precise consequential orders made. The judgment nevertheless establishes that the appellate court rejected the Federal High Court’s conclusion upholding Magu’s prolonged acting tenure.
The judgment brings judicial closure at the Court of Appeal level to a dispute that began while Magu was still in office nearly a decade ago.
Magu remained Acting Chairman of the EFCC from November 2015 until July 2020, when he was suspended by the Buhari administration following allegations of misconduct and irregularities.
He denied wrongdoing and subsequently appeared before a presidential investigative panel headed by retired Justice Ayo Salami.
Before his suspension, Magu had relied on Justice Ojukwu’s 2019 judgment as authority for the legality of his continued stay in office, arguing that until the judgment was overturned on appeal it remained binding.
In a written response to allegations against him in 2020, Magu specifically acknowledged that Jideobi had appealed the Federal High Court decision, stating at the time that the judgments affirming his acting appointment remained valid “until set aside by the appellate court.”
That appellate challenge has now resulted in the reversal of the Federal High Court judgment.
After Magu’s suspension in July 2020, Mohammed Umar Abba, then Director of Operations at the EFCC, took over the commission in an acting capacity.
