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Senate President Bukola Saraki has announced the names of ministerial nominees who made President Muhammadu Buhari’s second batch of ministers.
The new list include Dr. Okechukwu Enyinna Enelamah (Abia State), Mr. James Ocholi (Kogi State), Professor Isaac Adewole (Osun State), Professor Claudis Omoleye Daramola (Ondo State), Hon. Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim (Yobe State), and Alhaji Adamu Adamu.
Others on the list are Professor Anthony Anwuka (Imo State), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa State), Brig.-Gen. Dan Ali (rtd), and Hajia Aisha Abubakar.
The nominee from Bayelsa state, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri defected to the APC from the PDP less than 4 weeks ago.
He contested the Bayelsa West PDP primary Senatorial election and declared himself as winner of the election after conducting a sham parallel congress election. It was the Court that nullified his election and categorically told him that he is NOT the duly elected PDP candidate for the election.
In annoyance he resorted to antiparty activities and eventually defected from the PDP to the APC about 4 weeks ago.
Prof Anthony Anwuka is an in-law to Gov. Rochas Okorocha. his first son is married to Rochas daughter. A professor in his 70s, he was sacked as Imo State University VC!
Enelamah, a medical doctor, is the Co-Founder and CEO of African Capital Alliance, a leading private equity firm on the African continent. He has a wealth of experience in investment banking having worked for Goldman Sachs in London and New York and Arthur Anderson in Nigeria, and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a CFA charter.
He has served on a number of boards of blue chip companies including Dorman Long Engineering Ltd., Corner Stone Insurance Plc and UAC Nigeria Plc.
Daramola is a professor of education in the University of Ilorin, while Hon. Abba Ibrahim, a former first lady of Yobe State, is a past Commissioner for Transport in the state and a three-term member of the House of Representatives.
Adamu is a veteran journalist who once worked for New Nigerian Newspapers and was a member of Buhari’s Transition Committee.
Anwuka is a former Secretary to the Imo State Government, while Adewole is a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan and a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
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Ocholi was until recently the former National Deputy Legal Adviser of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), who recently contested for the governorship ticket of the party in his state but lost to Abubakar Audu. He was earlier a governorship aspirant on the platform of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the state.
Senator Lokpobiri represented Bayelsa West Senatorial District in the National Assembly until 2015 and was once Speaker of the state assembly, while Brig-Gen. Mansur Dan Ali just chaired the APC Bayelsa State Gubernatorial Primary Committee after the first botched primary in the state.
Saraki’s spokesperson, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, had earlier told newsmen the names were submitted by the president’s Chief of Staff, Alhaji Abba Kyari, Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Hon. Abdulrahman Kawu, at about 1.30 pm monday.
He said: “The list has been received by the Senate president. We received it this afternoon, and the list was brought by the Chief of Staff to the President, Alhaji Abba Kyari. He was accompanied by the SSA to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator lta Enang, and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Hon. Sumaila Kawu.”
The submission of the second list coincided with the decision by the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to suspend further investigations into the petitions against the appointments of a former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi and Amina Mohammed as ministerial nominees.
A non-governmental organisation (NGO), The Integrity Group, had petitioned the Senate, seeking the disqualification of Amaechi by the parliament over the alleged mismanagement of N70 billion when he was Rivers State governor.
Another group also petitioned the Senate, seeking the disqualification of Amina Mohammed over the fact that she was nominated to represent Kaduna State when she actually hails from Gombe State.
While appearing before the committee yesterday, Amaechi, who was accompanied by his former Commissioner for Information, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, and two members of the House of Representatives, told the committee that the matter contained in the petition was already sub-judice because it was already before a court of competent jurisdiction.
Responding, the panel’s chairman, Senator Samuel Anyanwu (Imo East), said since the case was pending before a court, “as a very responsible committee, it is in our rule that we will not entertain any matter before the court since it would be sub-judice”.
He added: “We have a petition against Amaechi. And there is a letter from his lawyer that they have a pending case in the court. We also received a White Paper indicting him and we also received a Federal High Court judgment that says that Amaechi cannot stop the judicial commission from investigating him.
“He went to the Appeal Court and the matter is pending in the Appeal Court, and in our Senate Rules, once a matter is in court, we will not dwell on it.
“What we are going to do is to package the documents, look at their nature and we will be able to do our report and send to the Senate by tomorrow (today) or next tomorrow.”
