There was mild drama in the Senate on Wednesday as senators belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party, Rivers State caucus kicked against confirmation of a former Governor of the state, Rotimi Amaechi, as a minister.
Amaechi’s name was one of those sent to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari last week Wednesday.
His name was among those read out for possible confirmation by the President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on Tuesday.
The drama to stop Amaechi on Wednesday began when Senator Gorge Sekibo raised a Point of Order (41) for the submission of a petition against the former governor over the alleged embezzlement of N70 billion.
But the moment he mentioned that the petition, written by a group called The Integrity Group from Rivers State, was against Ameachi, senators elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress spontaneously tried to shout him down.
among others, they shouted: “No!”
“No!”
“Dead on arrival.”
But their PDP counterparts fired back, shouting: “Allow him.
“Allow him.”
Amaechi, who was also the Director General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation, was one of the 21 ministerial nominees unveiled on Tuesday by Saraki.
The petition, written by a Non Governmental Organisation, The Integrity Group, based in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, was submitted to the Senate by Sekibo on behalf of the two other senators from Rivers State.
The petition was titled: “Petition against ministerial nominee – Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi: Demand to withdraw and reject his nomination and appointment on the ground of corruption, criminal breach of trust, unlawful enrichment and conversion of over N70 billion Rivers peoples’ monies by the former governor of Rivers State.”
Sekibo said the petition was endorsed by one Livingstone Wechie on behalf of the group and thousands of others.
Sekibo informed the Senate that the petition bordered principally on corruption and criminal breach of trust levelled against Amaechi.
When the protest against the petition subsided, Saraki referred the controversial document to the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges for consideration.
Speaking to newsmen about the petition, Senator Sekibo said: “There is this group that is called The Integrity Group.
“They believe in transparency, fighting against corruption.
“They believe in good governance and effective utilisation of every fund that is allocated to any state government.
“They are based in Port Harcourt.
“They went into a research and discovered that over N70 billion were transferred from hard currency account to places outside the country.
“A petition on this note was written to Mr. President.
“I believe the President has not read it.
“If he has read it, he may not have hurriedly nominated Rotimi Amaechi to be a minister.
“Amaechi is qualified to be a minister, but when issues of corruption and fraud are openly x-rayed by people, it is necessary for Mr. President to take a critical look and examine the allegations from these people whether they are true or not.”
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