Senate screens 17 Tinubu nominees for Rivers electoral commission, other agencies

Opeyemi Bamidele, the senate leader, says 17 nominees recommended by President Bola Tinubu to oversee the affairs of Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) and Rivers State Local Government Service Commission have declared their assets before the code of conduct bureau (CCB).

Bamidele, spoke during the screening of the nominees by the ad hoc committee set up to oversee the activities of Ibok-Ete Ibas, Rivers sole administrator.

The senate leader added that the nominees have also been cleared the Department of State Services (DSS) and the police.

The development comes one week after President Tinubu submitted the list of nominees to the senate for scrutiny and confirmation.

The five members nominated by the state civil service commission are Barikor Baribuma (chairman), Lot Egopija,  Maeve Ere-Bestman, Joy Obiaju and Charity Lloyd Harry.

Also, Michael Ekpai Odey (chairman), Lezaasi Torbira, Arthur Nwafor, Godfrey Mbudiogha, Joyce Akaniwor, Olive A. Bruce and Chidi Halliday are the seven candidates nominated for the Rivers state electoral commission.

Another seven appointees were nominated for the administration of Rivers State Local Government Service Commission are Israel Amadi (chairman), Linus Nwandem,  Christabel George-Didia, Tonye Pepple, Richard Ewoh, Emmanuel Ofik and Sammy Apiafi.

The 17 nominees were all presented before the senate committee by Basheer Lado, the special adviser to the president on senate matters, who divided them into three categories.

Bamidele who doubles as the chairman of the 18-member committee, reaffirmed the senate’s commitment to upholding democratic processes in the oil-rich state.

“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 Nigeria Police,” he said.

“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.

“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.”