After several hitches and postponements, Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers State, finally took his turn at the Nigerian Senate, for his confirmation hearing as a ministerial nominee.
Accompanied by party bigwigs, including the chairman John Odigie-Oyegun, Senator Ita Enang, Assistant on National Assembly Matters, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, former Speaker, Ghali Na’Abba and APC governorship candidate in Rivers State,Dakuku Peterside, Amaechi took the podium at 12.28 p.m. He left at 1.20pm
But the hearing was an APC affair , as the PDP senators elected not to ask questions.
The PDP senators gave their position through senate Minority leader, Godswill Akpabio, who said that because the senate ethics committee had just submitted its report to the senate, they had decided not to ask Amaechi any questions.
Senator Ndume suggested via a motion that Amaechi, in view of his antecedents, should be allowed to take a bow and go.
APC Senators however ,took over the session, asking their man, a lot of ‘friendly questions’.
Despite PDP’s aloofness, there were still noisy protests from the PDP side of the house each time, some issues were raised about Amaechi’s past relations with the PDP.
For instance, when the Senate leader, Ali Ndume referred to the PDP side, as ‘those people”, the PDP Senators demanded an apology. It was offered by Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
Amaechi had tried to douse the expected hostile reactions by the PDP against him, when in his opening remarks, he tried to establish his connections with a lot of the senators on the other side, some of whom he recognised as friends, ex-aides or colleagues.
He also stated that the Committee set up by his state government to probe him did not report any indictment against him and sought to tender the panel’s report.
The Senate hearing continues for other nominees. Among them is Enojo James Ocholi, deputy legal adviser of the APC.