Senate investigates alleged lopsided FG’s appointments

The Senate on Thursday, mandated its Committee on Federal Character to investigate alleged lopsided appointments into Federal Government agencies.

The decision followed a Point of Order by the Deputy President of the Senate, Mr Ike Ekweremadu, at plenary.

Ekweremadu alleged that appointments by the present administration were skewed in favour of a particular region of the country.

The point-of-order followed a letter from President Muhammadu Buhari seeking Senate’s confirmation of appointment of Mr Tunde Lemo, as Chairman, Federal Emergency Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and six members.

Lemo is a former Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Ekweremadu pointed out that some of the appointments by the administration were not in tune with the Federal Character principle.

He said that the Constitution provided composition of government or its agencies should reflect federal character principle so as to promote national unity.

He added that it should be done in a manner that avoided the predominance of persons from a few states or from few ethnic or sectional groups in the government or in any of its agencies.

In his contribution, Sen. Chukwuka Utazi (PDP-Enugu) said that most appointments of the present government were lopsided.

In his remarks, President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, mandated the Committee on Federal Character to investigate the matter and report back on Tuesday.