At last, embattled ministerial nominee, Rotimi Amaechi was screened on Thursday, October 22, after days of uncertainty and postponements.
Amaechi's screening was carried out by senators of the All Progressives Congress, APC, while minority senators of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, boycotted the exercise.
Arguments as expected ensued shortly after he was ushered in to commence the screening, as Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, raised a Point of Order on Amaechi’s screening when the report on the petition against him was yet to be considered.
Citing order 43 of the Senate standing rules, Akpabio insisted when the Committee on Ethic and Privileges submits its report on a petition against a nominee, it must be considered before screening.
As a result, the minority leader said PDP senators would not participate in asking the nominee any questions until the report of the committee was considered in the ‘Committee of the Whole.’
“The PDP senators will not have any questions for the nominee because we have just received a petition on him. The petition was not debated at all and was not adopted. As a result, we will not have anything to ask the nominee,” Akpabio said.
The committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions headed by Sen. Sam Anyanwu (PDP), which probed alleged N70bn fraud allegations against Amaechi laid its report at yesterday’s plenary.
However, the disagreement deepened when the Leader of the Senate, Ali Ndume, in response to the Point of Order, said if the PDP would not ask questions then the APC might ask the nominee to bow and go.
Citing order 53(9) of the same Senate rules, Ndume submitted that as the Leader, he had the responsibility of guiding the Senate properly.
He said the report of the investigation committee had just been laid and what should follow, according to the procedures of the Senate was to make the report available to all senators before debate on it would commence
He said the nominee, having been a speaker for eight years and a governor for another eight years had proved his competence and could be asked to bow and go.
Ndume said: “This is a confirmation hearing. We might as well ask the nominee as a former governor, a former Speaker of a House of Assembly to take a bow and go and not ask him any questions.”
The minority leader, however, moved to clarify his point of order but some of the APC senators were shouting “take a bow and go.”
The President of the Senate, thereafter, moved to resolve the disagreement and cautioned all the senators to stick to screening of the nominee rather than exchanging words.
The Senate thereafter proceeded with the screening with only the APC senators questioning the nominee, before he was subsequently asked to take a bow and go.