Senate Okays 45 Ministerial Nominees, Suspends Confirmation of El-Rufai, Two Others

The senate has put on hold the confirmation of three of the 48 ministerial nominees forwarded to it by president Tinubu for consideration and confirmation.

The three nominees are former governor Nasir El-Rufai From Kaduna State, Stella Okerete from Delta and Abubakar Danladi From Taraba State.

Their names were missing from the list of ministerial nominees confirmed in the screening which started last week.

Sources said the three nominees are undergoing security clearance from the appropriate agencies before they could be consider for a fresh screening.

For Nasir El-Rufai, a petition was tabled against him while undergone screeening last week by a senator over the security situation in southern Kaduna.

Among the 45 nominees confirmed are three from Ogun State, Wale Edun; Doctor Isiaka Salako and Bosun Tijani.

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The Senate on Tuesday screened ex-governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna) and Dave Umahi (Ebonyi); Wale Edun, Uche Nnaji, Stella Okotete, Adebayo Adelabu, Ekperikpe Ekpo, Hannatu Musawa, and Musa Dangiwa.

The following day, the red chamber screened Dele Alake, Lateef Fagbemi and Muhammad Idris, Ali Pate, and Doris Uzoka.

Tinubu went on to send a supplementary list of 19 nominees to the Senate last Wednesday. Two days later, the President withdrew the nomination of Maryam Shetty of Kano State from the list, replacing her with Festus Keyamo and Mariya Mahmoud.

On Friday, the Senate screened Zephaniah Jisalo, Shuaibu Audu, Yusuf Sununu, Bello Matawalle, Alkali Saidu, Ahmed Gwarzo, Atiku Bagudu, Simon Lalong, Ibrahim Gaidam, Aliu Abdullahi, Gboyega Oyetola, Heineken Lokpobiri and Tunji Alausa.

The screening continued at Senate on Saturday with Lola Ade-John, Bosun Tijani, Isiak Salako, Tahir Mamman, and Maigari Ahmadu.

The exercise concluded today with the screening of Mahmoud and then Keyamo.