President Muhammadu Buhari has sent the names of two new ministerial nominees to the Senate for confirmation.
The two nominees are replacements for former minister of State for Labour, James Ocholi from Kogi State, who died in an auto crash along the Kaduna-Abuja highway in March 2016 and former minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed from Gombe State, who is now Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations.
The new nominees are Stephen Ikani Ocheni Kogi State and Suleiman Hassan.
The list was sent to the Senate late Tuesday and was read on the floor of plenary by Senate President Bukola Saraki on Wednesday.
The list of ministerial nominees is coming less than 24 hours after the Senate stepped down the screening of the 27 nominees for the post of Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, in protest of alleged disrespect and disregard by some appointees of the President.
Senators have expressed displeasure with the presidency for not acting on the recommendations of the Senate regarding the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, who has failed confirmation at the Senate twice.
Recall that the lawmakers had twice rejected President Buhari’s nomination of Magu as the substantive EFCC chairman, citing allegations of corruption leveled against him by the Department of State Services, DSS.
The legislators said that it was wrong to leave any appointee in acting capacity after he had been rejected twice by the Senate.