The Senate has started screening the 17 candidates nominated by President Bola Tinubu to oversee the affairs of Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, Rivers State Civil Service Commission and Rivers State Local Government Service Commission.
The Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, disclosed this during the screening by the Senate ad hoc committee to oversee the activities of the Rivers Sole Administrator, Vice Adm Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd).
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE reports that before the commencement of the screening, the nominees officially declared their assets before the Code of Conduct Bureau.
The assets declaration followed clearance by the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police.
It would be recalled that a week ago, Tinubu transmitted the names of nominees to the Senate for confirmation.
There are five nominees for the Rivers State Civil Service Commission, who are Dr Barikor Baribuma (Chairman), Lot Egopija, Ms Maeve Ere-Bestman, Mrs Joy Obiaju and Mrs Charity Lloyd Harry.
Rivers State Electoral Commission has seven nominees – Dr Michael Ekpai Odey (Chairman), Mr Lezaasi Torbira, Prof Arthur Nwafor, Prof Godfrey Mbudiogha, Prof Joyce Akaniwor, Dr (Mrs.) Olive A. Bruce and Prof Chidi Halliday.
The category of Rivers State Local Government Service Commission also has seven appointees, namely Israel N. Amadi (Chairman), Linus Nwandem, Lady Christabel George-Didia, Dr Tonye Willie Pepple, Richard Ewoh, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ofik (retd) and Sammy Apiafi.
The Special Adviser to the President on Senate Matters, Basheer Lado, presented the nominees, who were divided into three categories, to the Senate Committee.
The nominees for the Rivers State Primary Health Care Management Board are expected to take place on Wednesday at the Senate.
Bamidele said, “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 Nigerian Police.
“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.”
He said once they finished the screening, the results and recommendations would be presented to the Senate leadership at the next plenary.
“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 prevent us from screening any of the nominees.
“The screening 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,” he said.