[wysija_form id=”1″]March 11, 2015 – The Senate today cleared Senator Muhammed Obanikoro and three others as ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Senator was not cleared last week when other nominees were cleared.
In today’s clearing, the Senate told Mr. Obanikoro to take a bow and go, without answering questions, a privilege reserved for former federal lawmakers.
He was Minister of State for Defence before he resigned to contest primaries for governorship in the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) Lagos.
Cleared with Obanikoro are Mrs Hauwa’u Lawan from Jigawa, Mr Kenneth Kobani from Rivers and Sen. Joel Ikenya from Taraba.
The Senate had last week cleared Sen. Patricia Akwashiki from Nasarawa State, Prof. Nicholas Adah from Benue, Col. Augustine Akobundu (rtd) from Abia and Mr Fidelis Nwankwo from Ebonyi.
But it was an easy one for Obanikoro as senators belonging to the All Progressive Congress(APC) tried spiritedly to stop him.
Senate Minority Leader, Senator George Akume had argued that the senator should not be cleared since he was fingered in Ekiti audio rigging tape. But he was countered by Senators of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in the house who argued that an accused persons remains innocent until he is proven guilty by the court of law.
In the heat of the argument, APC Lawmakers walked out of the chambers only to address a press conference that what happened was nothing but a breach of the constitution.
