The Cross River State ministerial nominee, Mr. Usani Uguru, drew the ire of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, senators yesterday after he said ‘God forbid’ to claims that he had once belonged to the party.
His confirmation was further put in jeopardy after furious PDP senators pointed out gaffes in his documentation, including his tax clearance papers and the lack of an asset declaration certificate.
Uguru was one of six nominees screened yesterday at the Senate with the remaining five scheduled to be screened today.
One of the nominees, Zainab Ahmed, a foster sister of Governor Nasir el-Rufai, representing Kaduna State, missed one of the lines of the National Pledge when she was asked to recite it, yesterday.
Ahead of the conclusion of the screening, PDP senators and their All Progressives Congress, APC, counterparts were last night perfecting their strategies to push forward the two most contentious nominees, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and Uguru, who fell into harm’s way by his utterances.
The other nominees screened by the Senate yesterday were Adewole Folorunsho, Osun; Bawa Bwari, Niger; Geoffrey Onyema, Enugu, and Mansur Mohammed Ali, Zamfara.
Uguru had in his introductory remark noted how he had traversed the country building relationships.
Asked if he had done that on the platform of PDP, to which he was alleged to have been a member, he responded “God forbid,” causing uproar among senators of both parties.
While APC senators started laughing, PDP senators were furious.
Noticing the agitation among PDP senators, Uguru quickly offered his apologies, but it did not soothe the anger in the PDP benches.
