The 17 candidates nominated by President Bola Tinubu to oversee the affairs of Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, Rivers State Civil Service Commission and Rivers State Local Government Service Commission have officially declared their assets before the Code of Conduct Bureau.

The assets declaration came on the heels of security clearance by the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police.

The Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, made the revelation during the screening exercise by the Senate ad hoc committee to oversee the activities of the Rivers Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (retd.)

The development comes barely one week after President Tinubu transmitted the names of nominees to the Senate for confirmation.

Bamidele, who doubles as the chairman of the 18-member committee however, reaffirmed the Senate’s commitment to upholding democratic processes in the oil-rich state.

He said, “Let me quickly inform distinguished colleagues and members of the public that the nominees who are seated before us have gone through security screening by the various security agencies, including the Department of State Security as well as the Nigerian police.

“And none of them had had any issue with security clearance, which is germaine to what we are doing here. We will just be speaking to your CV because I will have no issues with security clearance.

“Members of the public are also to be told that we have also insisted that they should go through the constitutional requirement of going to do their assets declaring by the Code of Conduct Bureau, which they have also complied with.”

The Ekiti lawmaker also disclosed that once they finish the screening exercise, the results and recommendations would be presented to the Senate leadership at the next plenary.

“Finally, it is also for me to report that as a committee we did not have any petition against any of the nominees who are here. So there is no inhibiting factor that would really prevent us from screening any of the nominees.

“The screening exercise itself is a process and all of these individual steps that I have mentioned are part of the process. Once we are done with this, we then make our recommendations to the Senate in plenary for the confirmation or otherwise based on our findings and recommendations,” he assured.

The five nominees for the Rivers State Civil Service Commission are Dr. Barikor Baribuma (Chairman), Lot Egopija, (member), Ms. Maeve Ere-Bestman (member), Mrs. Joy Obiaju and Mrs. Charity Lloyd Harry.

Rivers State Electoral Commission has seven nominees, which include Dr. Michael Ekpai Odey (Chairman), Mr. Lezaasi Torbira, Prof (Dr.) Arthur Nwafor, Prof Godfrey Mbudiogha, Prof (Dame) Joyce Akaniwor, Dr. (Mrs.) Olive A. Bruce and Prof Chidi Halliday.

The category of Rivers State Local Government Service Commission also has seven appointees namely Israel N. Amadi (Chairman), Linus Nwandem, Lady Christabel George-Didia, Dr. Tonye Willie Pepple, Richard Ewoh, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ofik (retd) and Sammy Apiafi.

The 17 nominees were all presented before the Senate committee by the Special Adviser to the President on Senate Matters, Senator Basheer Lado, who divided them into three categories.

The nominees for the remaining the remaining category, Rivers State Primary Health Care Management Board, is expected to take place on Wednesday at the Senate. (The PUNCH)