Senate Confirms 45 Ministerial Nominees, Stays Action On El-Rufai, Danladi, Okotete
The Senate on Monday, August 7, 2023 confirmed 45 of the 48 ministerial nominees forwarded to it by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for screening and confirmation.
This was after one week intense grilling and probing into their resume and some observed issues either with their academic qualification and security checks on them.
President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio after a closed door meeting of the Senate, put the individual nomination of the minister designate to voice votes which led to the confirmation of 45 of the nominees with the exception of three namely, Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna State),Stella Okotete (Delta State) and Senator Abubakar Danladi (Taraba State).
The trio are believed to be undergoing security clearance owing to barrage of petitions and other issues against them. The confirmation of the 45 nominees took place a week after President Tinubu forwarded their names through his Chief of Staff, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, who first submitted 28 names to beat the deadline for the submission of the ministerial list to the Senate in accordance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Some of the 45 names screened and confirmed by the Senate included former governor of Rivers, Nyesom Wike; former governor of Plateau State, Hon. Simon Lalong, former governor of Jigawa State, Abubakar Badaru, former governor of Ebonyi State, Senator David Umahi, Senator Abubakar Kyari (Borno State), Hon. Nkiruka Onyejeocha (Abia State), Bello Muhammad (Sokoto State) and Prof. Joseph Utsev (Benue State).
Others included, Mallam Mohammed Idris Malagi (Niger State), Abubakar Momoh (Edo State), Senator John Enoh (Cross River State), Dr. Betta Edu (Cross River State), Yusuf Maitama Tuggar (Bauchi State), Olubunmi Tunji Ojo (Ondo State), Uju Kennedy Ohaneye (Anambra State) and Iman Suleiman Ibrahim (Nasarawa State).
