By Ezrel Tabiowo
Abuja
The Senate yesterday screened four out of the eight ministerial nominees forwarded to it by President Goodluck Jonathan, just as the Upper Chamber deferred the screening of former Minister of State for Defense, Musiliu Obanikoro and three others till next week.
The ministerial nominees who were screened include Patricia Akwashiki (Nasarawa); Nicholas Akise Ada (Benue); Augustine Akobundu (retired) (Abia) and Fidelis Nwankwo (Ebonyi).
Those whose screening were deferred till next week include Obanikoro (Lagos), Hauwa’u Lawan (Jigawa), Kenneth Kobani (Rivers) and Joel Ikenya (Taraba).
Akwashiki, a member of the Sixth Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, was asked to ‘take a bow’, while the three others were drilled by lawmakers on wide ranging national issues.
Also, the Red Chamber did not confirm the nomination of the quartet.
Earlier, the Senate went into a closed door session, which lasted for about two hours to discuss what Senate President, David Mark described as ‘issues of national interest’.
But some lawmakers belonging to the opposition All Progressive Congress, APC, on condition of anonymity, revealed that during the closed door session, there was vehement rejection of Obanikoro’s nomination, as some senators kicked against his screening by the upper chamber.
Addressing newsmen yesterday, Babafemi Ojudu (Ekiti Central), said the position of the opposition senators is that Obanikoro was not qualified to hold public office.
He said: “We are going to oppose that and the three senators from Lagos have written to David Mark opposing that. Obanikoro is not qualified to hold public office based on his antecedents and a court case will be coming up on March 6 in Lagos.
“It is our position that the former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, is not qualified to hold public office like Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria again in view of revelations linking him to Ekiti election rigging in August last year apart from the case of dual citizenship being levelled against him.
“He is not qualified to hold public office based on his bad antecedents; the strength of which a case had been filed against him by two members of his party, (PDP) in a Lagos High Court with hearing already fixed for March 6, 2015. And under our rules, when a case is before a court of law, the President is expected to use his power to ensure that it is not brought before the Senate”.