UI’s VC, others make cabinet list

• Names include Ocholi, Lokpobiri, Anwuka, Enilamah, Daramola
• Lawyer sues, seeks order against ministerial screening
• Lawmakers suspend consideration of petition against Amaechi
• Groups rally support for female nominees, Ibeto faces protests

THE Senate yesterday received another list of ministerial nominees from President Muhammadu Buhari.

Senate President Olusola Saraki, who received the list, said it would be unveiled today.

But The Guardian gathered last night that the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Isaac Adewole, former Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly ant two-time senator, Heineken Lokpobiri, made the list.

Also on the list, said to be filled with unfamiliar names, names were James Ocholi, SAN, who recently contested for the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship ticket in Kogi state but lost to Abubakar Audu, and Anthony Anwuka, a professor of Education Administration who was secretary to the state government in Imo.

Adewole is a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, while Lokpobiri served as speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly between 1999 and 2001, and was senator from 2007 till 2015.

Other nominees are Claudius Omoyele Daramola, a professor of sociology of education, from Ondo State, Aisha Abubakar, Dan Ali, a retired brigadier-general, and Okechukwu Enilamah, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of African Capital Alliance. Lokpobiri was born March 3, 1967. As senator, he was appointed to committees on Sports, Public Accounts, Police Affairs, Niger Delta and Millennium Development Goals. In 1994, he received an LL.B (Hons) from Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Rivers state, and got his BL in 1995.

Born on May 5, 1954, Prof. Adewole is former President of the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer. Prior to his appointment as the 11th substantive Vice Chancellor of the University, he had served as Provost, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. His research interest is in the area of Human papillomavirus, HIV and Gynecologic oncology, a specialized field of medicine that focuses on cancers of the female reproductive system, including ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, vaginal cancer, cervical cancer, and vulvar cancer.[3] Professor Isaac is a member of the governing council, Adeleke University and currently chairs the National Panel on Cervical Cancer Control Policy.

He hails from Ilesha, Osun State.

Daramola, a Professor of Sociology of Education in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Ilorin, hails from Ode Aye in Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State. He graduated from the University of Sokoto, did his Master’s degree at the University of Ilorin and the doctorate degree at the University of Ilorin where he now lectures.

Responding to questions from journalists, Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu said: “The list has been received by the Senate President. We received it at 4:24 p.m. and it was brought by the Chief of Staff to the President, Alhaji Abba Kyari, accompanied by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Abdulrahman Sumaila Kawu.

On whether the list just sent would cover the remaining 15 states where ministerial nominees were yet to be selected from, Olaniyonu said:”We don’t know until the Senate President opens the envelop. We don’t know the number contained. We just assumed that that is the last batch. I am not sure it will extend to a third batch.”

But as the screening begins, there has been no let to matters arising from the first list of nominees just as an Abeokuta-based lawyer, Deji Enisenyin, has filed a suit in the Federal High Court Abeokuta against the President of the Senate over the screening of names submitted to the National Assembly on September 30, 2015 by the President.

Listed as defendants are the President of the Senate, President of the Federal Republic, National Assembly and Attorney General of the Federation.

The applicant, in his originating summons is praying for an order of court restraining the first defendant and other members of the Senate from according any recognition whatsoever to the said list of names submitted to the Senate President by the second defendant in defiance of the provision of the relevant provision of the 1999 Constitution.

He is also seeking for an order restraining the second defendant from giving any effect to the names submitted by him to the first defendant on September 30, 2015, having not complied with the provision of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In another development, the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions yesterday suspended consideration of petitions received against the nomination of former Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, as minister.

The committee, after a brief meeting with the nominee in the National Assembly announced that the subject matter of the petition which related to the white paper on a report of a Judicial Panel of Inquiry was already pending in court.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, had specifically asked Amaechi to confirm that the matter was awaiting the decision of court, subsequently declared that in line with Section seven of the Senate, it would amount to subjudice to continue to consider that petition.

The Senate had last Wednesday received a petition presented by all three senators from Rivers State on behalf of Integrity Group, which accused Amaechi of alleged N70 billion corruption.

The petition was presented on the floor of the chamber by Senator George Sekibo (PDP, Rivers East), who said it had the backing of the two other senators from the state: Olaka Nwogu (PDP, Rivers South East) and Osinakachukwu Ideozu (PDP, Rivers West).

In Oyo State, however, a group, Oyo State Coalition has pleaded with lawmakers to confirm the nomination of Adebayo Shittu, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state.

The group, made up of trade groups, professionals, artisans, elderly and the youths through its spokesperson Ismail Adewoyin, at a rally in the state capital said the choice of Shittu is a blessing to Oke-Ogun area of the state.

Adewoyin said: “We plead with the upper chamber of the National Assembly to confirm Shittu’s nomination and urged all and sundry to support him so that together with his other colleagues, the effort of President Muhammadu Buhari at transforming Nigeria will quickly become a mission accomplished.

“As a grassroots politician, Bayo Shittu is a team player with ardent desire to bring rapid development to the community. Many indigent students and parents have benefitted from his generosity just as he had put his legal services at the disposal of a number of people who were not in a position to pay for such services.”

In Niger state, more protests have greeted the nomination of Hon. Ahmed Musa Ibeto with the latest coming from Niger East Peoples Forum, which has described the nomination as shocking and unacceptable.

The forum in a letter of protest to the governor of the state, Alhaji Abubakar Bello and made available to newsmen in Minna yesterday, said the decision to nominate Ibeto who is from the same senatorial zone with the governor “has no doubt confirmed our fear that the Niger State administration has a deliberate plan to scheme and isolate the other two senatorial zones, especially the Niger East Senatorial District.

The protest is coming barely three days after a former governor, Abdulkadir Abdullahi Kure faulted the nomination of Ibeto, saying that it is against the principle of zoning which he said had ensured stability in the state polity.

Also yesterday, a coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) called on Nigerians to support the appointment of all female ministers-designate, saying they are underrepresented in all key decision-making sectors in the country.

The coalition comprising Centre for Democracy Development (CDD), Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Accountability Maternal New-born and Child Health in Nigeria (AMHiN), Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA), Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF), State of the Union (SOTU), Advocacy Nigeria and Women in Nigeria, in a joint statement issued in Abuja yesterday, said the contributions of women to the enthronement of democracy in Nigerian cannot be undermined.

They said the “petitions, gender-biased submissions and selfish positions by unpatriotic persons or groups of persons against the appointment of Mrs. Amina Mohammed as a minister by President Muhammadu Buhari” in particular, is totally condemned.