Senators In Secret Meeting To Stop Obanikoro

Never again, we can't have a man who lacks maturity like Musiliu Obanikoro as minister. That is the position of most APC lawmakers, Senators in particular, during their secret meeting to stop him.

The Senate had a rowdy executive session for about two hours on Wednesday as a result of attempt by Senate President David Mark to convince them to give Obanikoro an easy passage, in accordance to the tradition of the senate in the screening of former senators nominated for appointment as ministers.

A source said, “The Senate President pleaded with us to respect the tradition of the senate by allowing Obanikoro and two other former senators, who would be appearing before us for screening to just take a bow and leave. 

“We told him such gesture would not be extended to Obanikoro because of the two petitions against him that were forwarded to the Senate leadership, which he must address in a question-and-answer session.

“The insistence of the senate president that he would not preside over a chamber where the tradition that predated him would be destroyed led to a rowdy session which lasted for over one-and-a-half hour.”

The Senate had over the years adopted the “take a bow” treatment for nominee ex-senators. 

Obanikoro was a member of the upper federal legislative chamber between 2003 and 2007 on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy, AD. His name is among the eight new ministerial nominees before the Senate for consideration.

Members of the APC in the Senate had, last week, vowed to oppose the confirmation of Obanikoro.

It was learnt that Mark, shortly before plenary and in a bid to ensure that the tradition of the Senate was not broken, immediately ordered a closed-door executive session to iron out the differences between Obanikoro and the opposition senators before the ministerial screening.

One of the senators from the South-West geo – political zone, who preferred anonymity, told PUNCh that the executive session was rowdy while it lasted.

The senator explained that it took the intervention of the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, to resolve the issue.

According to him, Ekweremadu suggested that the screening and confirmation of Obanikoro should be postponed till a further date pending when the opposition would have a change of mind.

Another senator, a member of the PDP from the North-Central, who also spoke anonymously, confirmed that the screening of Obanikoro had been postponed till next week due to the issues against him.

He said, “The opposition senators stuck to their guns that the nominee must address the allegations leveled against him but the Senate President insisted that he would never allow such things to happen.

“We however resolved to suspend the screening of Obanikoro and three others till next week Tuesday, if the opposition senators would not insist that he must be asked some questions."