Buhari’s nominees face setback

Indications emerged yesterday evening that some ministerial nominees may not been given be a clean bill, as the Nigerian Senate begins the much-awaited ministerial screening billed to commence today. ‎ This is even as President Muhammadu Buhari also forwarded the second batch of the ministerial nominees to the Senate in a sealed envelope.

The Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang and his colleague in the House of Representatives, Abdurahman Sumaila, submitted the list to Senate President, Bukola Saraki, in his office around 4:24 pm yesterday.

Special Adviser to the Senate President, Alhaji Yusuph Olaniyonu, who confirmed this to journalists, explained that Saraki would not open the envelope until today during plenary when he was expected to read the list before his colleagues.

Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions also postponed the ongoing investigation on the petitions submitted against the nomination of former governor Rotimi Amaechi and Mrs. Amina Mohammed, as ministers.

Amaechi’s petition was last week read on the floor of the Senate during plenary. It was submitted by Integrity Group. Similarly, the one against Mohammed was written by a Kaduna-based lawyer and was submitted to the Senate by Senator Danjuma La’ah (Kaduna South).

Chairman of the Senate committee, Samuel Anyanwu, explained that since the case is already pending before a court, as a very responsible committee, it is in their rule not to entertain any matter before the court since it would be subjudice.

Mohammed who appeared before the panel, following her summons to defend the petition against her, urged the committee to disregard the allegations. She said she is not from Kaduna State, as contained in the said petition.

She said: “I was brought up in Kaduna. My father lived there but I have no connection with Kaduna State. I am an indigene of Gombe State and the assumption is that I would be representing Gombe in the cabinet.”

Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics and Public Petitions, Anyanwu, said in reaction:

“We just received only two petitions. One that concerns Rotimi Amaechi and the other one that concerns Amina Mohammed. So far, we have treated the two petitions and the committee is about putting down our report, which might be ready tomorrow [Monday, 12 October] and if we cannot conclude it tomorrow, then we will move to the next day. This is something that is very important to the Senate and we must take a very firm decision and scrutinise our report very properly. Nobody has been cleared. It is our report because whatever report that we turn out, it is the entire Senate that will dwell on that report and clear whoever is the subject of the report.

“We have not turned out our report. We only said that the matter we have before us is in court and there are other conflicting issues which we are yet to resolve and that is why we are trying to put our report together. But the screening commences tomorrow. It doesn’t matter. We have two, three days to do our screening. Anybody that is not screened tomorrow could be screened the other day.

“If the reports are ready for any of them, the person will be taken tomorrow. And of course, the Senate is going to take them batch by batch. So, it does not mean that everybody will be screened tomorrow. We have not received more than 10 petitions. We have only received two petitions. The petition does not come to us directly. It must be made at the floor of the chamber and they have not received anything.

“What we are saying is that we have a petition against Amaechi. And there is a letter from his lawyer that they have a pending case in court. We also received a White Paper indicting him, and we also received a Federal High Court judgement that says that Amaechi cannot stop the judicial commission from investigating him. He went to Appeal Court and the matter is pending in Appeal Court. And in our Senate Rule, once a matter is in court, we will not dwell upon it. But what we are going to do is to package the documents, look at their nature and be able to do our report and send them to the Senate by tomorrow or next.”

“Nothing is cast in iron. We do not need to be in a hurry to put up a report that may not find its place in the Senate. If we are ready tomorrow, of course, we will submit our report tomorrow. The only thing is that between Tuesday and Thursday, when they are supposed to finish with the screening of the ministers, the reports will be ready.”

DAILY POST