Senate panel asks Tinubu to remove CAC registrar-general

The Senate Committee on Finance has asked President Bola Tinubu to remove Hussaini Magaji, registrar-general of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), over his alleged refusal to honour repeated invitations from lawmakers.

The resolution was reached on Thursday during a budget defence session at the National Assembly, where members of the committee expressed frustration over what they described as persistent non-compliance with legislative summons.

Senator Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia North) moved a motion calling for Magaji’s arrest and immediate removal, arguing that failure to appear before the Senate committee undermines accountability and weakens the authority of the legislature.

“This man is not coming to the senate; he’s not above the law,” Kalu said during deliberations. “We summoned ministers, and they came. And this man thinks he’s bigger than the Senate? We’re not going to take that again.”

Kalu insisted that the registrar-general must appear in person to account for the commission’s financial activities, adding that excuses about official engagements were no longer acceptable.

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Chairman of the committee, Senator Sani Musa (Niger East), accused Magaji of repeatedly ignoring invitations to clarify issues surrounding the reconciliation of the commission’s revenue.

“The registrar-general of the Corporate Affairs Commission has refused, on so many occasions, to honour the calls, invitations or summons of this most important committee,” Musa said, citing sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution, which empower the National Assembly to conduct oversight and investigations.

According to Musa, the CAC boss often delegates junior officers to represent him before the panel, a move the committee considers unacceptable.

Backing the motion, Senator Adams Oshiomhole (Edo North) proposed withholding the commission’s 2026 budget allocation until the registrar-general appears before the panel to provide a detailed account of previous expenditures.

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Oshiomhole further suggested that the CAC be restrained from spending its internally generated revenue without prior approval from the National Assembly. He warned that any unauthorised spending could attract serious consequences.

“This senate should decline to appropriate anything in the 2026 budget until we are satisfied that he has properly accounted for previous spending,” he said.

The committee subsequently endorsed the proposal to restrict the CAC’s access to its internally generated funds pending compliance. The resolution urging the president to remove the registrar-general was adopted through a voice vote.

As of press time, neither Magaji nor the CAC had issued an official response to the senate’s decision.