Ministerial screening: Senate Committee Probes Nominee Over Petitions

The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition on Wednesday in Abuja, probed the Imo state ministerial nominee, Prof. Anthony Onwuka over petitions submitted against him.

At the meeting, Onwuka was asked by Sam Anyanwu, the chairman of the committee, to defend himself on the allegations against him.

Also, the lawmakers also countered one of the petitions that revealed that Onwuka was a family relation to Rochas Okorocha, the Governor of Imo state and also if it was morally right to get the position.

The petition questioned the fact that the ministerial nominee is an in-law to Rochas Okorocha, the governor of Imo state and are from the same Orlu zone.

The petition questioned the approval of 800,000 to repair the fence of his house when he was the Vice Chancellor, alleging that the court had indicted him on some of the allegations.

The petition also alleged that the nominee approved the procurement of a retirement bus for himself rather than a car between 2000 and 2005 when he was the Vice Chancellor of Imo State.

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In his defence, Onwuka , Prof. Onwuka said he cites his nomination on merits from President Muhammadu Buhari and not from Rochas.

“I am my own person and I was nominated as my own person not as the in law to the governor,” he said.

He also explained that he preferred a bus which cost 3.8 million naira because it was cheaper and the Peugeot 406 which cost 4.8 million naira as an official car would have been expensive to maintain.

He also said that he was not in the wrong for fixing his fence for 800,000 naira because it was within his limit as the Vice Chancellor of the university to do so.

Furthermore, Onwuka that the final verdict on the case against him was that the white paper indicting him was thrown out, adding that his detractors still made refernec to the white paper which had been nullified.

Thereafter, the committee went into a closed session to deliberate on the matter which resulted to Sen. Anyawu to say that the committee will treat the matter with discretion as the petitioners will be consulted to recieve a response from them.

Some of the lawmakers in attendance include Sen. Jeremiah Useni representing Plateau South, Sen. Obinna Ogba representing Ebonyi Central, Sen. Binta Garba representing Adamawa North among others.

Howerver, over ten petitions against Onwuka were submitted to Sen. Attan Achonu on Tuesday which he read out on the floor of the senate on Tuesday.

 

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