THE Senate has confirmed four commissioners for the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
The confirmation followed a presentation by the Senate Committee on Power during plenary on Wednesday.
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Those confirmed are Yusuf O. Ali (North-Central), Chidi Ike (South-East), Rogers Shatti (North-East) and Dafe Akpeneye (South-South).
While congratulating the commissioners, Senate President Ahmad Lawan expressed hope that they will work to improve the power sector.
“Congratulations to all of them. The power sector in Nigeria is still very much challenged and this country cannot make significant progress in terms of industrialization without power supply.
“We hope that this set of commissioners will bring their experiences to bear in their respective tenures as they work as commissioners in NERC,” he said.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power Gabriel Suswam, who hailed the performance of nominees during the screening exercise, noted that though a petition was received against Ali’s nomination, it was dismissed after due consideration for lack of merit.
The petition against Ali had stated that he was not from Kwara State and could not represent the North-Central zone.
Responding to the petition, Ali said though his parents were originally not from Kwara, he was born in the state and concluded the process of becoming an indigene in 2002.
Suswam dismissed the petition, describing it as frivolous.
Two weeks ago, President Muhammadu Buhari requested the confirmation of the commissioners in a letter written to the Senate.
Shatti and Akenenye, who had served as NERC commissioners since 2017, were reappointed by the president, while the two others would replace exiting officials.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.