Senate rejects 4 NDDC nominees sent by Buhari

A former senator, Osita Izunazo, has declined
nomination as a member of the board of the Niger
Delta Development Commission, the Senate was told
on Tuesday.
Peter Nwaoboshi (PDP-Delta) who presented the
report of the committee which screened President
Muhammadu Buhari’s nominees for the board of the
NDDC, told the Senate Mr. Izunazo voluntarily
declined nomination on the grounds of fairness and
justice.
Mr. Nwaoboshi reported Mr. Izunazo to have taken
the decision because he was not from an oil
producing community in Imo State.
However, two other persons who are not from oil
producing communities in their respective states
turned up for screening and wanted to be
confirmed.
The two persons are Donatus Eyinnah, Abia State;
and Olatokunbo Ajasin, Ondo State. Both were
rejected by the Senate.
During the debate, Eyinnaya Abaribe (PDP-Abia
State) said that Section 2(1) (b) of the NDDC Act
stipulated that nominees for the board of the
commission must be from communities where oil
was produced.
The lawmakers rejected an argument by the Senate
Whip, Sola Adeyeye (APC-Osun), that a nominee
should be cleared if he came from an oil-producing
state and not necessarily the oil producing part in
the state.
Mr. Nwaoboshi told the Senate that the nomination
of Mr. Ajasin, who is from Owo, faced stiff
opposition from Ilaje and Ese Odo people whose
communities produce oil. They were said to have
protested to the venue of the screening.
Then, another nominee, Igo Weli, was rejected on
the grounds that his nomination was wrongful in the
first place.
Therefore, the Senate confirmed 15 nominees,
rejected four.
Victor Ndoma-Egba, Cross River State; and Nsima
Ekere, Akwa Ibom State; Adjogbe Samuel, Delta State;
and Mene Derek, Rivers State, were confirmed for
the positions of Chairman, Managing Director,
Executive Director (Project) and Executive Director
(Finance and Administration) respectively.
Those appointed as members of the board by the
Senate were Frank George, Akwa Ibom; Brambaifa
Nelson, Bayelsa; Sylvester Nsa, Cross River; Ogaga
Ifowodo, Delta; Uwuilekhue Saturday, Edo; Harry
Dabibi, Rivers; Bernard Banfa, North-Central; Yahaya
Mohammed, North-East; and Mustapha Dankadai,
North-West.
Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, Federal Ministry of Finance;
and Abdul-Kazeem Bayero Federal Ministry of
Environment, were also confirmed but the Senate
resolved the duo would cease to be NDDC board
members should they be redeployed to another
Ministry.
In a related development, Mr. Buhari, also on
Tuesday, requested the Senate to consider and
confirm nomination of seven persons as chairman
and commissioners of the Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission in accordance with Section
34 of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act.
The nominees are Akintunde Akinwande, South-
West, as Chairman; Sanusi Garba, North-West as
Vice Chairman. The Commissioners are Nathan
Shanti, North-East; Moses Arigu, North-Central; Dafe
Akpeneye, South-South; Frank Okafor, South-East;
and Musiliu Oseni South-West.

Source: Premiumtimes