Lawrence Ewrudjiakpo, a Bayelsa State senator, has said nominees who do not submit their certificate of declaration of assets could be disqualified.
He made this statement while briefing journalists at the National Assembly on Friday, July 26, 2019.
Ewrudjiakpo first raised a point of order on the floor of the chamber shortly after the screening of former aviation minister, Hadi Sirika.
Mr Sirika is one of the 43 ministers appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari into his cabinet.
Sirika was offered the traditional ‘take a bow and go’ treatment by the lawmakers on grounds that he was once a lawmaker.
After the exit of Mr Sirika, the Bayelsa lawmaker drew the attention of his colleagues to the issue.
Ewrudjiakpo noted that some of the nominees have not submitted the said certificates. He urged his colleagues to admonish them to bring it.
Addressing journalists, he said the constitution requires the President, Vice President, the service chiefs and heads of extra-ministerial departments to declare their assets before they are screened.
“But I noticed that it was not the trend with this screening and I decided to draw the attention of the Senate President to this fact. A few of them have complied but majority of them have not complied.
“It is a breach of the constitution. If we are fighting corruption, we must be seen to be doing so. We should know what they are worth before coming to office and what they are worth at the end of their tenure.
“We are not witch-hunting anybody. Before we go into the confirmation stage, this is just the screening, we will take all the documents and at that point, if the certificates of asset declaration are not there, we will draw the attention of the Senate to disqualify such candidates,” he said.
The screening of ministerial nominees is underway. The lawmakers have screened 26 nominees so far.
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