Senate Frowns As Tinubu Picks Cross River Indigene As Chairman , Rivers State Electoral Commission
The Senate yesterday raised concerns over the nomination of a Cross River State indigene, Dr Michael Ekpali Odey, as Chairman of the Rivers State Electoral Commission (RSIEC), by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Tinubu had in a letter read on the floor of the Senate by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio on June 12, asked the red chamber to approve the nomination of Odey and six others as chairman and members of the Rivers State Electoral Commission.
The six members are: Mr Lezaasi Lenee Torbira, Professor Arthur Nwafor, Professor Godfrey Woke Mbudiogha, Professor (Dame) Joyce Akaniwor, Dr (Mrs) Olive A. Bruce and Professor Chidi Halliday.
President Tinubu had declared a state of emergency in Rivers State and suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his deputy, Ngozi Odu, and all elected members of the state House of Assembly for six months.
The president appointed retired Vice Admiral Ibok-Ette Ibas as the state’s administrator. Daily Trust reports that both Ibas and the nominated chairman of the Rivers State Electoral Commission, Odey, are from Cross River State.
But the Senate ad hoc committee on Rivers emergency rule yesterday questioned whether it was legal for Ekpali Odey to be nominated and cleared to head the electoral body in Rivers State, during the screening of the nominees yesterday at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.
After the concerns from members of the committee, Senate leader and chairman of the Senate ad hoc committee on emergency rule in Rivers, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), said, “We are also in possession of the law. So just telling you to make it available to the committee is a polite way of saying that we need to take a second look at it.
“When we say state-independent electoral commission, it is about that state and this is not a matter we are just going to gloss over and it has to be something that we can defend. We must find that defence as stated in the law even if there is nothing in the law saying you cannot from outside of the state.
“Even if nothing says that, we still will need to look at it to be sure that it’s not something that would be repugnant to public conscience. It has to be something that we are able to defend. So, we will take a second look at that. But your appointment as RSIEC has raised a new issue for us to look at so that we know whether it’s something that can serve as a precedent or not.”
Answering questions from the senators earlier, Odey said, “With utmost respect, I also have gone through the RSIEC’s enabling law, and there is nothing that precludes an appointment of anybody outside the state as chairman of the electoral management body in the state.”
When asked whether he has the copy of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission Act, he said, “No, I don’t have it, I went through it.”
