The Senate has taken a swipe at the appointment of a Cross River state indigene, Michael Ekpai Odey, as the Chairman of the Rivers State Electoral Commission (RSIEC) by the state’s Sole Administrator, Ibok-Ete Ibas.
This occurred on Tuesday while the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on Oversight of Emergency Rule in Rivers State screened President Bola Tinubu’s nominees for appointment as Chairman and members of RSIEC.
Speaking during the screening exercise, the Chairman of the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee on Rivers Emergency Rule and Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC) Ekiti Central, vowed that the Committee would carry out a holistic probe into the issue of why an indigene from another state is appointed to chair another state’s electoral body and to know whether it is something that can serve as a precedent or not.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, had on Thursday, June 12, read a communication from President Bola Tinubu on his seven nominees to be screened to occupy the positions of Chairman and Members of the Rivers State Electoral Commission (RSIEC): Michael Ekpai Odey (Chairman).
The members are Lezaasi Lenee Torbira, Arthur Nwafor, Godfrey Woke Mbudiogha, Joyce Akaniwor, Olive A. Bruce and Chidi Halliday.
Akpabio thereafter referred the letter to the Bamidele-led Committee for further legislative action and report back at plenary in two weeks.
The Senate Leader said: “We are also in possession of the law. So, just telling you to make it available to the Committee is a polite way of saying that we need to take a second look at it because, in my opinion, the Independent National Electoral Commission is about the Federal Republic of Nigeria. When we say state-independent electoral commission, it is about that state and this is not a matter we are just going to gloss over and it has to be something that we can defend. We must find that defence as stated in the law even if there is nothing in the law saying you cannot from outside of the state,
“Even if nothing says that, we still will need to look at it to be sure that it’s not something that would be repugnant to public conscience. It has to be something that we’re able to defend. So we’ll take a second look at that. Perhaps to eligibility criteria, otherwise, that’s not in doubt. But your appointment as RSIEC has raised a new issue for us to look at that so that will know whether it’s something that can serve as a precedent or not.”
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