Senate’s Crisis Over Amaechi Deepens - The Nation

•Plenary adjourned
for Saraki’s trial
Rather than abate, the crisis over the screening of ministerial nominee Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi is deepening at the Senate.
Yesterday, his name was removed from the Order Paper after being listed among the eight nominees for screening.
The number was pruned to three – Adebayo Shittu (Oyo), Hajia Khadija Abba-Ibrahim (Yobe) and Claudius Daramola (Ondo), who was not on the first Order Paper.
Only Shittu and Hajia Abba-Ibrahim were, however, screened.
On the first Order Paper before Amaechi’s name was removed are Shittu, Hajia Abba Ibrahim, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri (Bayelsa), Bawa Bwari (Niger), James Ocholi (Kogi), Mansur Muhammed (Zamfara) and Zainab Ahmed (Kaduna).
Amaechi, who is on the first list of 21 nominees sent to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari on September 30, has not been screened because of the petition filed against him by the self-styled The Integrity Group.
Amaechi has since denied the allegation against him and taken the matter to court.
The Senate yesterday suspended plenary today without stating reasons. But, it may not be unconnected with the resumption of Senate President Bukola Saraki’s trial before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for alleged false assets declaration today.
The Senate Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions Committee which considered the petition against Amaechi was set to submit its findings yesterday but the report’s submission was also deleted from the Order Paper.
Its Chairman Senator Samuel Anyanwu was listed to submit the report before the item, just like Amaechi’s name, was removed from the Order Paper.
No reasons were given for the removal. Efforts to find out why they were removed failed.
At the office of the Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Babajide Omoworare, nobody was ready to speak on the matter. An aide, after conferring with the lawmaker, told The Nation: “The time and terrain are too sensitive, so oga willnot say a word.”
But, it was learnt that “the leadership of the Senate decided to shift Amaechi’s screening to pave the way for constructive consultation with hardliner Senators, particularly of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”
According to a source, the Senate leadership decided to shorten plenary to allow time for a meeting of the PDP caucus.
No member of the caucus spoke to reporters after the meeting but an insider said they were unable to resolve how to treat Amaechi’s case.
The source noted that while a few members of the caucus “wanted us to soft pedal and support the nomination of Amaechi, others were vehement that we should not back down on our stand .”
He added: “It is an open ended situation. Anything can still happen between today and tomorrow. The PDP caucus has not concluded. Nothing is cast in iron in politics. Some thing can still happen.”
The caucus, he said, would still meet at the party headquarters on the issue.
Another source said it was wrong of the Senate to continue to delay Amaechi’s screening.
According to the source, if Amaechi is screened, the Senate has the right to confirm or reject his nomination.
He said: “Even though PDP senators are insisting that Amaechi should not be screened, it is better for us to screen the nominee and take a decision on him. I have it on good authority that most PDP Senators have vowed to stop Amaechi’s screening but at the end of the day, good conscience will prevail because we are talking to one another on this sensitive issue.”
At his screening, Shittu described the upper chamber as “the most productive Senate on the soil of Africa.”
The nominee said if he is confirmed he would do his best to ensure that the Executive and the National Assembly work in tandem for the country’s development.
He said: “If confirmed, I will be a round peg in any ministerial posting that I’m given.”
Shittu denied that he was indicted by a panel for religious intolerance in Oyo State, nothing that he was in Saudi Arabia when the incident occurred and couldn’t have had anything to do with it.
The panel that investigated the matter, he said, never invited him, adding that the list of those invited was gazetted.
The panel, he said, merely “advised him” to refrain from writing books that could inflame religious passion, adding: “It was only an advice and not an indictment.”
Shittu said the government had since pardoned all those indicted by the panel.
On why he lost his governorship election in 2011 on the Congress for progressive Change (CPC) platform, the nominee said he did not lose because of his personality.
He said he lost because “the whole of South West people decided to vote for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).”