Opposition Mounts Another Assault Against Confirmation Of Ex Gov, Rotimi Amaechi As Minister

Information filtering in revealed that former governor of Rivers state, Rotimi Amaechi faces fresh opposition against his confirmation as a Minister.

Amaechi had earlier in the week overcame mounted obstacles against his screening – and got screened by the Senate after this and that postponements.
Ex Gov Rotimi Amaechi
Now information has hit town, another ambush is being plotted against him on the day of confirmation.

Here are the full details as sourced
The last is yet to be heard about the dispute between senators elected on the platform of the

All Progressives Congress and their counterparts from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party over the screening of former Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, for ministerial position.

Saturday PUNCH gathered that opposition senators are still seething from what some of them described as a betrayal of trust by their APC colleagues.

According to the opposition senators, what played out on the floor of the Senate on Thursday was at variance with what was earlier agreed upon.

This, they argued, has made it incumbent on them to take their pound of flesh on the day of confirmation.

The PDP senators, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, noted that the issue of the former Rivers State governor was not personal because he remains a friend with most of them.

They were, however, of the opinion that he did not only offend the PDP as a political party, but also the Senate as an institution.

The PDP senators explained that some of Amaechi’s actions during his stint as Rivers State governor also called to question the authority of the Senate.

One of the senators recalled that during the 7th Senate, both chambers of the National Assembly agreed to take over the Rivers State House of Assembly to avoid further break down of law and order.

But that the former governor went behind to get a court injunction to stop them.

“Amaechi even took it a step further by encouraging the state House of Assembly to hold its sitting at the Government House in defiance of our collective decision,” one of the senators said.

A highly placed member of the PDP caucus in the Senate, who also confided in one of our correspondents, stressed that the controversy surrounding the screening of the nominee was far from over.

He explained that he and his colleagues were constrained by provisions of Section 147 (6) of the 1999 Constitution to watch while senators of the ruling party screened the nominees.

Section 147 (6) reads: “An appointment to any of the offices aforesaid shall be deemed to have been made where no return has been received from the Senate within twenty-one working days of the receipt of nomination by the Senate.”

The source said, “If you look at the provisions of Section 147 (6) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), it says that if he is not confirmed or rejected within 21 working days, he is assumed to have been confirmed. The Senate had to do something by screening him to scale that hurdle.

“One is screening, the other one is approval, before confirmation. He still has three more hurdles to cross; we have not even debated the report yet. When we debate it, we will know where the opinion will swing.

“When you get to the shore of the ocean, you will know how to cross it. Have you not seen us screen people and reject them? It has happened many times before, it can happen again.

“If the ruling party pushes us to the wall, we may have to call for a division instead of the voice vote in which case, every Senator will stand up and answer his father’s name by telling Nigerians where he or she stands on the matter.”

A Senator from the South-West, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it was too early for the ruling APC to celebrate because the report of the Senator Samuel Anyanwu-led Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, is still pending.

A member of the Senate Ethics Committee, who also confided in Saturday PUNCH on Friday, said the committee recommended a stay of action on the confirmation hearing.

He said, “We have submitted our report and what we wrote was that the issue regarding Amaechi’s petition was in court and that the Senate should suspend action on his screening pending the resolution of the court issues.

“The truth of the matter is that we have procedures for doing things in the Senate, even though we are now in opposition. We are watching because whichever way this is handled, it will set precedence.”

In response to the PDP threat, an APC Senator from Oyo South, Adesoji Akanbi, said the APC caucus in the Senate remains solidly behind Amaechi.

He assured that the party caucus would do everything possible to ensure the confirmation of the former governor as minister.

Akanbi, who is a member of the anti-Saraki Senate Unity Forum, explained that APC senators had put aside their differences and resolved to speak with one voice to ensure that any attempt to intimidate the former governor did not succeed.

He said, “We understand why some of our colleagues in the opposition party are against the screening of Amaechi. It is not based on principle or hinged on national interest. Their grouse is that they want to pay him back for reducing the status of the party to that of opposition.

“We are more than them in the chamber and we will vote overwhelmingly for his approval and confirmation as minister. It is not also correct that the committee advised against his clearance.

“The Senate is barred from discussing any matter before the court and Amaechi is presumed innocent until he is convicted by a competent court of law.”

It can also be recalled that the Minority Leader of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, had raised Order 43 of the Senate Standing Orders (2015) to dissociate his colleagues in the PDP from Ameachi’s screening, citing the yet to be considered report.

There are insinuations that the opposition PDP instructed its senators to resist the confirmation of the former governor who was at one time a member of the party.

He was accused of being one of the biggest architects of the party’s misfortunes during the last general elections.

However, when contacted, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Alhaji Abdullahi Jalo, described PDP senators as men and women of integrity whose only interest was how to move Nigeria forward.

Jalo said, “Our senators are men and women of integrity. As senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, most of them are senior party men and whatever issues that are brought before them, they have the wisdom to deal with such issues.

“I can tell you that as a party, we are too busy rebuilding our structures to be talking about a single individual or what happened in the past or what did not. The party does not interfere in the affairs of the legislature.”

Punch