The All Progressive Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State have clashed over the commissioner-nominees list forwarded to the House of Assembly for screening.
Daily trust report that, The House had in a statement through the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, Shehu AbdulKadir Yusuf, ‘acknowledged the receipt of a communication from Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq containing names of nominees.”
The governor of the state, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, sent an executive message to the Kwara State House of Assembly requesting that 20 commissioner-nominees be confirmed.
Daily trust report that, The Governor also requested authorization from the legislature to select 10 Special Advisers to serve the government in a variety of capacities.
The statement said, “The House will diligently attend to the request in due course.”
A few days later, the House added that a new date would be announced in due course when it announced the delay of its plenary.
However, the development came at the same time as calls for the commissioners to be screened.
In a statement released in response to the occurrence, the opposition PDP referred to the presentation of the commissioner-nominees’ list to the House as dishonest.
The statement mentioned that within 60 days of taking office, governors are required by the constitution to submit names of nominees to the House for approval.
“The new administration was inaugurated in on May 29th, 2023, and as of August 8th, 2023, the house postponed plenary till further notice instead of vetting the nominees received”.
As claimed by other NGOs, “PDP put it to the APC regime led by the Governor that there was in fact no commissioner’s list sent to the KWHA,” the party stated.
Alhaji Tajudeen Folaranmi Aro, the state publicity secretary for the APC, responded on Friday, saying the House has the authority to decide the schedule for vetting and confirming the nominees after confirming receipt of the governor’s list.
He claimed that the PDP was attempting to unfairly capitalise from the development in order to stir up emotion.
Aro requested that the House expedite the process of reviewing and approving the commissioner nominees.
“Names were submitted and acknowledged by the House of Assembly. The state House of Assembly, which did not set a deadline for screening, is where the majority is. Better off contacting the House with additional questions.
“They (PDP) are constantly seeking out justifications to incite feeling on all fronts. We do, however, implore the Speaker to act swiftly on the list, according to Aro.
Speaking on the subject, Engr Yakubu Danladi-Salihu, Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, reiterated the receipt of the list in contrast to a “cover letter” assertion made insinuatingly in some quarters.
Ganandaji (
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