Buhari sends fresh ministerial nominees’ list to senate, as Upper Chamber gets new Minority Leader
President Muhammadu Buhari has moved to replace former ministers who resigned their offices to contest the just-concluded Special Presidential Primary of the ruling All Progress Congress (APC), with the submission of seven nominees to the Senate for screening and confirmation, Tuesday.
This is also as the senate announced a new Minority Leader, Senator Philip Aduda (PDP-FCT) to replace Enyinnaya Abaribe, who had resigned his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The ministerial nominees, when confirmed by the senate are expected to fill the portfolios previously held by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio; Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi; that of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ogbonnaya Onu, and others who contested the presidential primary but lost out to former Lagos State Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The former ministers were earlier directed by President Buhari to resign their appointments before contesting the primary of the APC.
In a letter written to senate and read by its president, Ahmad Lawan on the floor during Tuesday’s plenary, Buhari requested the approval of the Upper Chamber in confirming the ministerial- nominees, saying the listed designates would replace the former ministers who resigned from his cabinet, last month.
The letter read in part: “In accordance with Section 8 Subsection 2 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, I hereby forward the underlisted ministerial nominees for your confirmation.
“The nominees are:
Henry Ikechukwu Ikoh – Abia State
Umana Okon Umana – Akwa Ibom State
Egwumakama Joseph Nkama – Ebonyi State
Goodluck Nnana Opiah – Imo State
Umar Ibrahim El-Yakub – Kano State
Ademola Adewole Adegoroye – Ondo State
Odum Odih – Rivers State.”
The nominees are expected to be assigned portfolios by Buhari after successful screening by the senate.
Meanwhile, Senate President, Lawan, Tuesday, announced the appointment of the senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Philip Tenimu Aduda as the new Minority Leader.
The 53-year-old Aduda was confirmed alongside Senator Chukwuka Utazi who was also named the Senate Minority Whip.
The senate at plenary, presided by Senate President, Ahmad Lawan made the announcement while reading two separate letters signed by the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Samuel Anyanwu.
The Minority Leader’s seat was vacant following the defection of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South) from the PDP.
Senator Aduda is in his 19th year in the National Assembly, serving as a member of the House of Representatives between 2003 and 2011, and was there after elected to the Senate for the Abuja Federal Capital Territory in 2011 under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He has since been in the House of Senate for two-terms as he is currently running his third-term as the senator representing FCT in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.
Chukwuka Utazi, representing Enugu North senatorial district who was named the Senate Minority Whip, is 60-year-old.
