Garba Shehu

The Presidency on Saturday defended inclusion of the names of some dead persons in the list of appointments into boards of some agencies released by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation on Friday.

At least, five of the nominees in the list of slightly below 1,500 have been confirmed to have passed- on many months before yesterday announcement of their appointments into various boards of agencies and parastatals of Federal Government.

Those identified so far to be ‘deceased appointees’ include Francis Okpozo, Donald Ugbaja, Christopher Utov and Kabir Umar.

The discovery led to withering criticisms of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, especially in the social media on Saturday morning.

Mallam Shehu Garba, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity who spoke to journalists in Abuja on Saturday also said there was nothing “scandalous or extraordinary” in the in the inclusion of the names.

He pointed out that the process of compiling the list started in 2015 while a reviewed list was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari in 2017 shortly before his health challenges.

“This list is a historical list. It dates back to 2015. The President asked all state chapters of the APC to forward 50 names for appointments to the SGF through the national headquarters of the party.

“The then SGF, Babachir Lawal, presented the report in October 2016, one year after he was commissioned.

“The report was disputed by state governors who said they were not carried along or the list was not representative enough.

“So, the President constituted a new panel chaired by the Vice President. The panel has some governors and some leaders of the party as members. They were asked to go and review the list.

“The panel did its work and turned in its report early in 2017. The President had his health challenges during that period.”

He however assured that the dead nominees will be replaced.