Compensation? Saraki names Ndume INEC committee chair

In what is regarded by many as a compensatory move, former Senate leader, Ali Ndume, was on Thursday, named as the new chairman of the Senate committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The move is coming sixteen days after he was removed by his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), as Leader of the Senate,

Recall that Ndume had a day before challenged the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, to make the Senate’s budget public.

The announcement of his new appointment was made at about 2.55pm, few minutes after lawmakers concluded their Day Three debate on the 2017 budget.

Read also: Ndume accuses Saraki of keeping Senate budget secret

Saraki who presided during plenary made the announcement.

There was also a minor reshuffle in portfolios which saw some new Senators who were recently sworn-in, clinch committee chairmanship positions.

Senator Magnus Abe from Rivers State, who recently won a keenly-contested rerun election, was named to head a new Senate Committee on Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA).

Another Rivers State Senator, George Sekibo was named as chairman of the Senate committee on Interior. The committee has been without a head since the exit of its former chairman, Senator Olaka Nwogu, also from Rivers State.

Senator Atai Idoko who was sworn-in towards the end of 2016 and represents Kogi East in the Senate, was named to head a new committee on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Senator Abubakar Kyari, who hitherto, chaired the Senate committee on INEC, was named by Saraki to head Defence committee. Leader of the Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan, until his appointment, headed the Defence committee.

With the announcement of new committee heads, the total number of committee chairmen now stands at 68, from its earlier 66.

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