TRIBUNE
The Senate on Monday cleared 45 out of the 48 ministerial nominees sent to it by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Those whose names were not mentioned were former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai; former Deputy Governor in Taraba State, Abubakar Danladi and Stella Okotete from Delta State.
No reason was given by President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio for stepping down the clearance of the nominees who appeared before the Red Chamber.
Shortly after reading out the names of the 43 nominees that were cleared, Senator Akpabio said,” For the avoidance of doubt, we have confirmed 45 out of 48 sent to us by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The others are still awaiting clearance.”
Nigerian Tribune checks revealed that a Senator representing Kogi West Sunday Karimi presented a petition before the Senate during the screening of Mallam Nasir El -Rufai which he noted bothered national security and national unity.
While responding to the petition, President of the Senate who said El- Rufai should not respond to the petition however said:” This is not the place to consider petitions, we will sit with the petitions later and refer them to relevant authorities. “Please, take a bow, my brother.”
Further investigation revealed that the nominee from Taraba was indicted by a judgment of the Supreme Court which barred him from holding public office for ten years.
Senator Danladi however told the lawmakers that no such pronouncement ever emanated from the apex court.
He said: “The Federal High Court, Jalingo, as at the time I contested for the governorship election, said that because of my age on my certificate, the judge gave a judgement against me.
“I now took the matter up to the Appeal Court. When we were in the Appeal court, they just struck out the case.
“The same thing, Justice (Mary) Odili said that the Federal High Court Jalingo was wrong to have decided the judgement in that way because when I was Deputy Governor in 2007, then the judgement on that, the same Federal High Court Jalingo used their veto power at that time to rule against me.
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