*Nominees storm police hqtrs for
profiling
*Senators to be guided by 1999
Constitution, 2015 Standing Orders
*Petitions against nominees must
be considered before Tuesday
*Nominees must submit 115 copies
of resume each
AHEAD of Tuesday’s commencement
of screening, Senate, yesterday, raised hurdles that ministerial nominees must
scale to be cleared for appointment.
The Senate, which said that the
screening will be guided by the 1999 Constitution and the Senate Standing Orders
2015, as Amended, directed all nominees to submit 115 copies of their resume
each to the Senate, on or before Monday.
This is coming as the nominees
stormed the Police headquarters, Abuja, for profiling, yesterday.
Meanwhile, Special Adviser to the
President, Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, yesterday dismissed as mere
rumours reports that portfolios had been allocated to the nominees, insisting
that portfolios would not be assigned until the nominees were cleared by the
Senate.
Among others, the reports claimed
that Kaduna State nominee, Amina Mohammed, has been slated as Finance Minister;
Dr. Chris Ngige, Health; Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Information and Communication;
Mr. Adebayo Shittu, Works; Abdulrahman Danbazau, Defence; Babatunde Fashola,
FCT; Rotimi Amaechi, Niger Delta; Audu Ogbeh, Agriculture; Dr. Kayode Fayemi,
Foreign Affairs, and Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Science and Technology.
Nominees for profiling
Among nominees who were at the
Force headquarters yesterday are Audu Ogbeh, Benue; Chris Ngige, Anambra; Udoma
Udo Udoma, Akwa Ibom, and Abubakar Malami, Kebbi.
The electronic profiling of the
21 ministerial nominees at the Police Headquarters took many by surprise as
such exercises were usually carried out by either the Department of State
Services, DSS, or office of the National Security Adviser, NSA.
Vanguard gathered that the first
set of the ministerial nominees, who arrived in batches, was received and led
to the ICT Profiling Centre by the Inspector General, Solo-mon Arase, at about
12.15p.m. and left at about 12. 35p.m.
Other ministerial nominees
reportedly arrived the Force Headquarters between 1p.m. and 1.45p.m. and
similarly carried out their finger-printing and profiling at the 7th floor
office profiling room.
The profiling of the ministerial
nominees, complete with their finger prints and other biometrics, which is the
first of its kind since appointment of ministers in the present democratic
dispensation, is seen by observers as a way of collecting current data of the nominees
by the Federal Government to ensure proper records for purposes of
accountability in future.
However, some observers wondered
why the ministerial nominees who are yet to scale the Senate screening hurdle,
should go ahead and commence profiling when many of them were not sure if they
will scale the Senate screening, particularly those with pending petitions.
One observer who spoke under
condition of anonymity asked: “What happens if some of these nominees fail to
pass through the screening exercise? Or does it mean that the Federal
Government is already thinking of appointing these persons irrespective of
whether or not they pass the screening hurdle?”
Petitions against nominees
The Senate also, yesterday,
ordered the Senator Samuel Anyanwu-led Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges
and Public Petitions to ensure that all petitions submitted against any nominee
were treated on or before Monday and submit the report on Tuesday before the
screening begins.
Senate President, Dr. Bukola
Saraki, gave the order soon after a petition was presented by Danjuma La’ah,
representing Kaduna South Senatorial district, against the Kaduna State
nominee, Aisha Ibrahim Muhammed.
Senator La’ah was, however, not
clear which state the ministerial nominee comes from because she is from Gombe
State by birth and married to a Kaduna indigene.
Earlier yesterday, the Senators
went into a closed door session for two and half hours, where issues relating
to Tuesday’s screening of the nominees were discussed.
36 nominees or no screening—PDP
Also, Senators elected on the
platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were in a closed-door meeting for an
hour.
A source told Vanguard at the end
of the meeting that the PDP senators were not comfortable with the partial
submission of ministerial nominees.
The source said PDP Senators have
warned that the nominees must not be cleared until the President forwards the
remaining list.
Credit: Vanguard
No comments:
Post a Comment