Senate withholds confirmation of El-Rufai, 2 others, confirms 45 ministerial nominee

The Senate on Monday evening approved the confirmation of 45 out of the 48 ministerial nominees of President Bola Tinubu, as cabinet members after a week of intense grilling for some of the candidates.

The upper legislative chamber, however, withheld the confirmation of the remaining nominees namely former Governor of Kaduna State; Nasir El-Rufai, Stella Okotete (Delta State), and Abubakar Danladi (Taraba State), as they are said to still be undergoing security clearance.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio put the nominations to a series of voice votes, of which all but 3 were approved.

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The confirmation comes over a week after Tinubu’s transmission of a 28-member list to the Senate for confirmation on July 27.

Petition against the nominees

There had been a couple of petitions against these ministerial nominees which came up during their screening at the Senate.

Senator Sunday Karimi (APC, Kogi West) presented a petition written against the former governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, during the screening.

Karimi, after El-Rufai’s presentations, stood up and told the chamber that he had a petition written against the former governor over the issue of insecurity in Southern Kaduna.

He said, “Your performance in any office you find yourself in the country has been outstanding. In the bureau of public enterprises, your record is there, in FCT as a minister, your record is there, and as two-time governor of Kaduna state, you did well.”

Raising a brown envelope, Karimi further stated,

“But, I have a very strong petition against you that borders on security, unity, and cohesiveness of the Nigerian nation.
“And I think that the petition has to be considered in this screening exercise.”

Karimi then proceeded to lay the petition before Jibrin Barau, the deputy senate president, who was presiding over the screening exercise at the time.

Barau in response said,

“I don’t know if you followed the normal process, but this is the opportunity for nominees to explain and showcase themselves, later we will come to confirmation and approval.”

Meanwhile, after making his presentation, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, at the plenary refused to take the petition, leveled against the former governor and said a number of petitions were submitted against a number of the ministerial nominees.

Also, during the screening a petition against Dalandi about a court judgment restricting him from holding public office for 10 years was presented to the senate.

Copies of some petitions against Okotette in the Public Space also confirmed that there were a number of petitions against the former Nexim Bank, Okotete, including non-disclosure of assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau.

The list of 45 ministerial nominees confirmed by the Senate are;