Ministerial
Screening: Senate Keeps Amaechi Waiting
Today, October 21, Nigerian
dailies are focused on a number of issues especially the ongoing Senate
ministerial screening which is taking a long time to conclude.
Vanguard reports that the
ministerial screening of Rotimi Amaechi has put senators belonging to the
ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
in a tight corner.
Vanguard
front page, October 21, 2015.
Unless the
Senate confirms or formally rejects him by Thursday, October 29,Amaechi would automatically be sworn in as a minister upon
the expiration of the 21-day constitutional deadline allowed the Senate to
confirm or reject a ministerial nominee.
Section 147 (6) of the
constitution setting the deadline on confirmation of ministerial nominees
states thus: “An appointment to any of the offices aforesaid shall be deemed
to have been made where no return has been received from the Senate within 21
working days of the receipt of nomination by the Senate.”
The Senate will not be sitting
today as senators decided to stand down plenary to enable them accompany Senate
President Bukola Saraki to the Code of Conduct Tribunal for his trial which
continues today.
APC senators reportedly axed
today’s plenary to avert the fear of Senator Ike Ekweremadu, the deputy
president of the Senate, presiding and giving the PDP an advantage in the
confirmation process.
However, it was gathered that PDP
senators after a caucus meeting yesterday vowed to stop Amaechi’s confirmation.
It still unclear whether Saraki
would appear before the tribunal today in view of one of his lawyer’s reaction
to Monday’s inability of the Court of Appeal to deliver its judgment on
Saraki’s main appeal, in which he is challenging the validity of the charges
made against him at the tribunal, The Punch reports.
The
Punch front page, October 21, 2015.
Saraki’s trial at the CCT which
began last month had been adjourned to October 21. Saraki is facing a 13-count
charge of corruption made against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau. He first
appeared before the tribunal on September 22. The Justice Danladi Umar-led
tribunal, after Saraki was arraigned, had fixed October 21 for the commencement
of trial.
On Tuesday, the Senate president
filed a fresh application for stay of the proceedings of the CCT due to
Monday’s failure of the Court of Appeal to deliver judgment on his earlier
appeal.
Saraki is challenging the trial
on the grounds that the CCT, not being a court, could not exercise judicial
powers and that the charges filed at the time an attorney general of the
federation had not been appointed were incompetent.
The Senate once again failed to
screen Amaechi, the former governor of Rivers state, yesterday, The
Guardian reports.
The
Guardian front page, October 21, 2015.
The Senate deferred his screening
last week due to the inability of the committee on ethics and privileges to
conclude investigations into petitions brought against Amaechi by senators from
his state.
Though the committee was said to
have concluded the investigations and promised to present its report, nothing
was heard about it yesterday.
It appears there are
behind-the-scenes maneuvers surrounding Amaechi’s screening as two different
Order Papers were produced for plenary yesterday.
The first Order Paper had the
names of eight ministerial nominees including Amaechi, but it was withdrawn, only
to be replaced with another one which had only three names for screening.
Consequently,
only two people were screened, Adebayo Shittu, a three-term member of the House
of Representatives, and Khadijah Abba Ibrahim, the wife of a former governor of
Yobe state, Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim.
Source: Naij.com
Source: Naij.com
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