THERE was a mild drama on the
floor of the Senate on Wednesday when a lawmaker representing Rivers East
Senatorial District, George Sekibo, rose to present a petition against the
nomination of former governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, as a minister.
No sooner than Sekibo, who is a
member of the Peoples Democratic Party, raised a point of order to submit the
petition than the All Progressives Congress senators kicked against the
submission, and raised their voice, shouting No!! No!!!
Notwithstanding the reaction of
the APC senators, Sekibo went ahead with his point of order and got the
permission of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to submit the document on
behalf of his other colleagues from Rivers State.
Saraki, who ignored the protests
of his party members, referred the petition to the Senate Committee on Ethics,
Privileges and Public Petitions to investigate the allegations against Amaechi
and report back to the Senate.
Speaking with journalists in his
office shortly after the plenary, Sekibo said the petition was based on an
investigation carried out by a Port Harcourt-based group, called the Integrity
Group.
Sekibo said the same petition had
earlier been forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari and the various anti-graft
agencies in the country about two months ago when the group concluded its
investigation.
He said, “The Integrity Group,
based in Port Harcourt, believes in transparency, fighting against corruption.
They (Integrity Group) believe in good governance and effective utilisation of
every fund that is allocated to any state government.
“They went into a research and
discovered that over N70bn were transferred from hard currency account to
places outside the country. A petition on this note was written to Mr.
President. I believe the President has not read it.
“If he has read it, he may not
have hurriedly nominated Rotimi Amaechi to be a minister. Amaechi is qualified
to be a minister, but when issues of corruption and fraud are openly X-rayed by
people, it is necessary for Mr. President to take a critical look and examine
the allegations whether they are true or not.”
Sekibo said senators from Rivers
State were not kicking against the appointment of a Rivers man to be a
minister, but that Buhari should pick another member of the APC from the state
with cleaner records.
Reacting to the action of the APC
senators, a Peoples Democratic Party member representing Delta Central
Senatorial District, Senator Ighoyota Amori, lamented the development,
stressing that such behaviour would send negative signals to Nigerians.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on
Information, Media and Publicity, Senator Dino Melaye, on Wednesday explained
why the APC members in the upper chamber protested the submission of petition
against the nomination of Amaechi, as a minister.
Melaye told one of our
correspondents in an interview that his colleagues in the APC protested against
the submission of the petition because it was submitted by senators.
He said, “Our responsibility as
senators is to screen the ministerial nominees based on petitions received from
outsiders like civil society organisations, and communities and not from
senators.
“We specifically objected to
Senator George Sekibo presenting the petition not because we are against the
investigation of allegation against Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, but because the
petition was brought by senators.
“Petitions should come from
outside. They should not be sponsored by members within the chamber. We should
not be the judge in our own case.”
Meanwhile, the Rivers State
chapter of the APC has flayed Sekibo for his attempt to submit a petition
against Amaechi’s nomination as a minister.
The State Publicity Secretary of
the APC, Mr. Chris Finebone, said Sekibo lacked the basic knowledge of how
Amaechi administration worked.
Finebone recalled in a statement
issued in Port Harcourt on Wednesday that Amaechi had supported Sekibo’s second
term bid for the Senate against the wish of the current governor of the state,
describing the lawmaker as a man that bit the finger that fed him.
Copyright PUNCH.
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