People’s Democratic Party (PDP) senators from Rivers state might have lost their bid to stop the former governor Rotimi Amaechi from being cleared as a minister over the senate rule on home support.
As it emerges that the Senate rule on home support before a ministerial nominee can be cleared is less sacrosanct, PDP senators from Rivers State may have lost their bid to stop Amaechi.
The three lawmakers from Rivers state, George Sekibo, Olaka Nwogu and Osinachukwu Ideozu had last week opposed the clearance of Amaechi with a petition laid before the Senate by Sekibo.
In what appeared as temporarily hanging Amaechi’s fate, the Senate ruled that a nominee must be supported by at least two senators from his/her home state, among other modalities.
But the Senate spokesperson, Dino Melaye and a couple of other lawmakers who spoke to our source said the rule was not sacrosanct and as such could not stop any nominee from being cleared.
It was also learnt that the Senate President Bukola Saraki and other influential Senators like Godswill Akpabio were helping Amaechi asuage the Rivers senators.
A source in Saraki’s camp said the price is that Amaechi should ensure withdrawal of the APC petition at the election tribunal against the election of Governor Nyesom Wike.
Seeing the demand as “quite difficult and impossible,” Our source gathered that Amaechi decided to intensify lobbying which might have resulted in the lessening of the Senate modality on home support.
Melaye said, “well lobbying is normal. The politics of National Assemblyb is lobbying.”
Following the precedence set on Tuesday, when Amaechi comes before the Senate for screening, his fate will be determined by the senators in plenary.
“Our colleagues from Rivers State are not comfortable with this development because the knife to cut Amaechi’s bid has already been sharpened if we had not waved the rule that a ministerial candidate must have the support of his home senators,” a Senator from one of the Southern States said, demanding anonymity because the sensitivity of the matter.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, October 13, the senate screened 10 ministerial nominees from the first list sent by President Muhammadu Buhari out of 21 nominees from ‘batch A’ and 16 nominees from ‘batch B’.
The screening exercise by the senate is also billed to take three days.
