Ministerial nominees: Senate receives more petitions

Following the second list of names of ministerial nominees sent to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari, a number of Nigerians have expressed opposition to some of the names on the list and have sent in petitions to the legislative body.
The nomination of Senator Heineken Lokpobiri as ministerial nominee by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to represent Bayelsa State, is generating tension among the intelligentsia in the State, leading a group, Bayelsa Solidarity Forum (BSF) to call for his replacement.
Also, Senator Ibrahim Gobir (APC, Sokoto East) has also presented a petition against a nominee from Sokoto State, Aisha Abubakar, demanding for her to be replaced with a more competent person.
He presented the petition at Thursday’s plenary through a point of order saying, that the people of Sokoto State were yearning for a more competent person.
“Mr. President, I have a petition against a ministerial nominee from Sokoto State, Mrs Aisha Abubakar which was written by the good people of Sokoto and the highlight of the petition is that she should be replaced by a more competent person- a Sokoto indigene”, Gobir said.
On its part, the Bayelsa group said its petition became necessary due to what they said was Lokpobiri’s questionable political antecedents “both as a former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Speaker of the Bayelsa state House of Assembly”.
The BSF in a petition by its Secretary, Godspower Belekumo-Davidson, to the Senate, said “we are calling on the leadership of the National Assembly to have a re-think over the nomination and the screening of Lokpobiri. If truly the APC stands for what it has been professing, the name Lokpobiri shouldn’t have come up in the first instance, let alone sending it to the Senate for ratification”.
Belekumo-Davidson said, “For record purposes, Heineken Lokpobiri was elected as a member of the State House of Assembly in 1999 and subsequently became its first speaker but was later impeached in 2002 for gross financial misconduct.
“Also, he spearheaded the bombing of the administrative wing of the State House of Assembly complex. He was on self imposed exile in Port Harcourt, Rivers state for many years. This was done in a bid to escape police arrest.

Read also: Ministerial nominees: Buhari won’t act on mere petition –APC Chief

“In 2011, Heineken Lokpobiri contested on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but he lost to the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Rt. Hon. Perembowei Ebebi, who was the clear winner of the election.
The then chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, had on national television called for the arrest and prosecution of Senator Lokpobiri who was caught with a ballot box during that National Assembly election that was conducted by INEC on April 9, 2011.
“Jega said, ‘a Senator is to be prosecuted by INEC for electoral malpractices. The senator commandeered corps members and election materials to his house. We are discussing with security agencies about having him apprehended and prosecuted.’
“When Ebebi appealed to the court, a horde of miscreants sacked the court and destroyed court documents. Matters became worsened. In some amazing abracadabra, whereas the law court wanted Lokpobiri prosecuted, he somehow managed to wriggle himself out of trouble and was declared the eventual winner” the group alleged.
He added, “The list of his nefarious acts is endless. That is why we are surprise that people like Lokpobiri could make the list of our respected President, General Muhammadu Buhari.
“As a body, the issue that we are raising is neither personal nor political, it is in the interest of the entire Ijaw nation. While other states are well represented, we will not fold our hands by allowing Lokpobiri to represent our interest”.

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