Senate Confirms Buhari’s 43 Ministerial Nominees

Senate Confirms Buhari’s 43 Ministerial Nominees

The Senate on Tuesday after five days screening exercise confirmed President Muhammadu Buhari’s 43 ministerial nominees who appeared before it.

Name of those confirmed are Ikechukwu Oga (Abia) Mohammed Musa Bello (Adamawa) Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom) Chris Ngige (Anambra) Sharon Ikeazor (Anambra) Adamu Adamu (Bauchi) Maryam Katagum (Bauchi) Timi Sylva (Bayelsa) Others are George Akume (Benue) Mustapha Baba Shehuri (Borno) Goddy Agba (Cross Rivers) Festus Keyamo (Delta) Ogbonnaya Onu (Ebonyi) Osagie Enakhire (Edo) Clement Agba (Edo) Adeniyi Adebayo (Ekiti) Geofrey Onyeama (Enugu) Ali Issa Fantami (Gombe) Emeka Nwajiuba (Imo) Suleiman Adamu (Jigawa) Zainab Ahmed (Kaduna) Mohammed Mahmoud (Kaduna) Sabo Nanunu (Kano) Bashir Salihi Magashi (Kano) Hadi Sirika (Katsina) Abubakar Malami (Kebbi) Ahmadu Tijani (Kogi) Lai Mohammed (Kwara) Gbemisola Saraki (Kwara) Raji Fashola (Lagos) Nimbe Momora (Lagos) Muhammed Abdullahi (Nasarawa) Zubeira Dada (Niger)

Olamilekan Adegbite (Ogun) Tayo Alasoadura (Ondo) Rauf Aregbesola (Osun) Sunday Dare (Oyo) Pauline Tallen (Plateau) Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers) Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi (Sokoto) Saleh Mohammed (Taraba) Abubakar Aliyu (Yobe) Sadiya Umar Farouk (Zamfara)

Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN) was the Director Strategic Communication, APC Presidential Campaign Council for the 2019 General Elections. The nominee for Delta during his screening said he will unbundle the Supreme Court if made the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.

Keyamo disclosed this on Friday while taking questions from members of the Senate at the ongoing ministerial screening exercise in Abuja.

The human right activist, who was the fourth nominee to appear in the red Chamber on Thursday, said it was “scandalous” to have only one Supreme Court in Abuja, attending to the whole country.

He said he would press for constitutional changes to create six more regional Supreme Courts. He attributed the current delay of judicial processes at the apex court to heavy traffic of cases coming from the 36 states and the FCT.

He proposed that the Appeal Court in Abuja should only be made to attend to constitutional interpretation, political and election matters. He also advocated for the decongestion of the prisons across the country.

He said this would be made possible by making sure that every Divisional Police Officer opens his cells to the nearest magistrate to ascertain why suspects are detained.

He also called for the amendment of the criminal laws across the states, particularly calling for the review of the powers of the Director of Prosecution and their Attorneys General, to avoid abuse of office. On the number of the political parties in the country, Keyamo said “we must keep opening up the political space to Nigerians.

“But besides registration of these political parties, they must be made to test their popularity and capacity at the lower elections.”

Sen. James Manager (PDP Delta), who spoke on behalf of Delta caucus in the Senate, urged his colleagues to support the nomination. He said that Keyamo had demonstrated competence and intelligence in handling all the questions by the senators.

The President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, therefore ratified Manager’s appeal through a voice vote in favour of the nominee.