THE Nigerian Senate has confirmed the nomination of Muhammed Isah as the chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), alongside six other members of the bureau, but rejected three of the nominees.
The confirmation and rejection followed the adoption of the report by the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, headed by Sam Anyawu.
The nominees whose membership of the CCB was approved include Ubolo Okpanachi, from the North Central; Ken Madaki Alkali, North Central; Murtala Kankia, North East; Saad Abubakar, North East; S.F Ogundare, South West; and Emmanuel Attah, South-South.
However, Danjuma Sado, South-South; Ganiyu Hamzat, South West; and Vincent Nwanne, South East had their nominations declined by the lawmakers.
Anyanwu said that out of the ten candidates nominated as members of the CCB by President Muhamadu Buhari, only eight turned up for the screening exercise.
One of the rejected candidates, Sado, has not reached 50 years, the age requirement by the CCB Act. Anyanwu explained that Sado was only 39, and therefore could not be confirmed.
The two others, Ganiyu Hazmat and Vincent Nwanli, failed to attend the screening exercise and were consequently screened out.
The Senate urged President Buhari to forward an additional three names to make up for the disqualified candidates.
The nomination of new members of the CCB was first done in June 2017 by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, then acting on behalf of the President who was away on medical leave, but on his return, President Buhari himself also forwarded the same set of names to the Senate in November 2017, pleading with the lawmakers to expedite action on their confirmation.
There had been a controversy as to the legality or otherwise of the dissolution of the former board of the CCB which was headed by one Sam Baba, from Niger State. The matter was later laid to rest by Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja, who ruled that the tenure of the CCB board was for five years, adding that Baba’s tenure expired since April 2015 as he and his board members were appointed in 2010.