President Muhammadu Buhari and the Director General of the Department of State Service (DSS), Alhaji Lawal Daura, have thrown a thick blanket around the list of nominees for appointment as ministers.

At the headquarters of the DSS, Abuja, where President Buhari had submitted the list for screening, operatives of the service appeared to have sworn to an oath on the issue, as none was willing to give a clue as to those screened on the request of President Buhari.

Concerted efforts by NewsExpress to get a peep into the list met a brick wall. The DSS operatives approached on the issue were emphatic that “the names of the screened nominees cannot be disclosed for now,” adding that “it is between the president and the director general.”

They disclosed that they are under strict instructions not to reveal any name of the nominees on the list to anyone, adding that severe sanctions would be meted out to whoever is implicated in the leaking of the list.

Non-DSS sources who claimed to have seen the list said that the names of bigwigs of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) who have been hopeful of making the list, were missing. News Express learnt that even the duo of the Senate president and speaker of the House of Representatives were not given the allowance to field any nominee in the cabinet of President Buhari, unlike how it used to be in time past.

Buhari has operated without a cabinet since taking over power on May 29 but has, however, promised to constitute one before the end of this month. News Express recently reported that the president had submitted over 200 names to security agencies, but less than a quarter of them scaled the integrity hurdle.

•Photo shows President Buhari.

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