The 17 individuals nominated by President Bola Tinubu to head critical agencies in Rivers State—including the Independent Electoral Commission, Civil Service Commission, and Local Government Service Commission—have formally declared their assets before the Code of Conduct Bureau.
This development followed their clearance by the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police.
Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, made the disclosure during a screening exercise conducted by the Senate ad hoc committee overseeing the activities of the Rivers Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd).
The screening came just a week after President Tinubu forwarded the nominees’ names to the Senate for confirmation.
The nominees for the Rivers State Civil Service Commission include Dr. Barikor Baribuma (Chairman), Lot Egopija, Ms. Maeve Ere-Bestman, Mrs. Joy Obiaju, and Mrs. Charity Lloyd Harry.
The Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission nominees are Dr. Michael Ekpai Odey (Chairman), Mr. Lezaasi Torbira, Prof. Arthur Nwafor, Prof. Godfrey Mbudiogha, Prof. Joyce Akaniwor, Dr. (Mrs.) Olive A. Bruce, and Prof. Chidi Halliday.
For the Rivers State Local Government Service Commission, the appointees are Israel N. Amadi (Chairman), Linus Nwandem, Lady Christabel George-Didia, Dr. Tonye Willie Pepple, Richard Ewoh, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ofik (retd), and Sammy Apiafi.
The 17 nominees were presented to the Senate committee by the Special Adviser to the President on Senate Matters, Basheer Lado, who grouped them into three categories.
The screening of nominees for the Rivers State Primary Health Care Management Board is expected to take place on Wednesday at the Senate.
Bamidele, who also chairs the 18-member committee, reiterated the Senate’s commitment to promoting democratic governance in the state.
He said, “Let me quickly inform distinguished colleagues and members of the public that the nominees who are seated before us have gone through security screening by the various security agencies, including the Department of State Security as well as the Nigerian Police.
“And none of them had had any issue with security clearance, which is germane to what we are doing here. We will just be speaking to your CV because I will have no issues with security clearance.
“Members of the public are also to be told that we have also insisted that they should go through the constitutional requirement of going to do their assets declaration by the Code of Conduct Bureau, which they have also complied with.”
He added that the committee received no petitions against any of the nominees and found no obstacles to proceeding with the screening.
“Finally, it is also for me to report that as a committee we did not have any petition against any of the nominees who are here. So there is no inhibiting factor that would really prevent us from screening any of the nominees.
“The screening exercise itself is a process and all of these individual steps that I have mentioned are part of the process.
“Once we are done with this, we then make our recommendations to the Senate in plenary for the confirmation or otherwise based on our findings and recommendations,” he said.