The Senate has commenced the screening of 17 nominees whose names were sent to it by President Bola Tinubu to run the affairs of several government institutions in Rivers State.
The state has been under emergency rule since 18 March following protracted political crisis which led to the suspension of the executive and legislative arms by the President, who appointed Vice Admiral Ibokette Ibas (rtd.) as Administrator.
Upon confirmation, the nominees with serve in the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, Rivers State Civil Service Commission and Rivers State Local Government Service Commission. have declared their assets before the Code of Conduct Bureau.
During Wednesday’s screening exercise by the Senate ad hoc committee which oversees the activities of the Administrator, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele said that the assets declaration came on the heel of security clearance by the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Police.
President Tinubu transmitted the names of nominees to the Senate for confirmation last week.
The five nominees for the state Civil Service Commission are Dr. Barikor Baribuma (Chairman), Lot Egopija, Ms Maeve Ere-Bestman, Mrs. Joy Obiaju and Mrs. Charity Lloyd Harry.
The state Electoral Commission has seven nominees – Dr. Michael Ekpai Odey (Chairman), Mr. Lezaasi Torbira, Prof. Arthur Nwafor, Prof. Godfrey Mbudiogha, Prof. Joyce Akaniwor, Dr. (Mrs.) Olive Bruce and Prof. Chidi Halliday.
The category of the state Local Government Service Commission also has seven appointees namely Israel Amadi (Chairman), Linus Nwandem, Lady Christabel George-Didia, Dr. Tonye Willie Pepple, Richard Ewoh, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ofik (rtd.) and Sammy Apiafi.
The 17 nominees were all presented before the Senate committee by the Special Adviser to the President on Senate Matters, Basheer Lado, who divided them into three categories.
The nominees for the state Primary Health Care Management Board are expected to take place on Wednesday at the Senate.
Bamidele. who doubles as the chairman of the 18-member committee, however, reaffirmed the Senate’s commitment to upholding democratic processes in the oil-rich state.
He said: ‘Let me quickly inform distinguished colleagues and members of the public that the nominees who are seated before us have gone through security screening by the various security agencies, including the Department of State Security as well as the Nigerian Police.
‘And none of them had had any issue with security clearance, which is germane to what we are doing here. We will just be speaking to your CV because I will have no issues with security clearance.
‘Members of the public are also to be told that we have also insisted that they should go through the constitutional requirement of going to do their assets declaration by the Code of Conduct Bureau, which they have also complied with’.
The Senator also disclosed that once they finished the screening exercise, the results and recommendations would be presented to the Senate leadership at the next plenary.
‘Finally, it is also for me to report that as a committee we did not have any petition against any of the nominees who are here. So there is no inhibiting factor that would really prevent us from screening any of the nominees.
‘The screening exercise itself is a process and all of these individual steps that I have mentioned are part of the process.
‘“Once we are done with this, we then make our recommendations to the Senate in plenary for the confirmation or otherwise based on our findings and recommendations’, he said.
