{"id":3776,"date":"2025-03-19T18:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T18:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/?p=3776"},"modified":"2025-03-19T18:35:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T18:35:39","slug":"president-seeks-senate-confirmation-of-new-recs-creates-confusion-on-bayelsa-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/president-seeks-senate-confirmation-of-new-recs-creates-confusion-on-bayelsa-nomination\/","title":{"rendered":"President Seeks Senate Confirmation of New RECs, Creates Confusion on Bayelsa Nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The President of the Senate, on Wednesday, 12<sup>th<\/sup> March 2025 read a letter from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu requesting the confirmation of Umar Yusuf Garba (Kano State), Sa\u2019ad Umar (Bauchi State), Chukwuemeka Ibeziako (Anambra State), and Mohammed Ngoshe (Borno State) as Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, prior to this,\nthe submission of the names of two different nominees for Bayelsa State, Dr.\nOwede Kosioma Eli and Dr. Johnson Alalibo Simikeme, via two letters dated\nWednesday, 5 March 2025, created confusion within the Senate. The first letter\nidentified Dr. Eli as the nominee representing Bayelsa, but a follow-up letter\nlisted Dr. Simikeme as the preferred nominee. Noting this unusual occurrence,\nthe President of the Senate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, at the plenary session of\n12 March 2025 emphasized the need to officially notify the Presidency about the\ndual nomination to ensure clarity and prevent further procedural errors that\ncould undermine the credibility of the confirmation process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amidst the confusion, Sen.\nAkpabio had read a second follow-up letter from the President dated 7<sup>th<\/sup>\nMarch 2025 where the said two nominees for Bayelsa State were entirely omitted.\nThe President of the Senate noted that this letter of 7th March 2025 (which, at\nthis point was the third in the series of letters from the President requesting\nconfirmation of his nominees) takes precedence over the two earlier letters of\n5th March 2025. In his opinion, the most recent communication from the\nPresident should be treated by the Senate as the official stance of the\nPresident on the nominations. However this issue seems to have been resolved\nvia another letter sent to the Senate on Tuesday, 18th March 2025 wherein Dr.\nJohnson Alalibo Simikeme was indicated as the nominee for Bayelsa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This spectacle in the\nSenate over dual or conflicting nominations fuels speculations about political\nmaneuvering and internal disagreements within the Presidency over executive\nappointments. It also raises questions about the integrity of the nominations\nprocess, particularly for critical agencies such as the Independent National\nElectoral Commission (INEC), which is supposed to be a non-partisan body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This will not be the first\ntime that nominees for appointment as RECs for INEC have generated controversy\nwithin the Senate and among the public. Past nominations into the Commission have\nfaced criticism and allegations of political bias, improper vetting, or\nprocedural lapses, reinforcing the need for a thorough and transparent\nconfirmation process. The President\u2019s request has been referred to the Senate\nCommittee on Electoral Matters for further legislative action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The President of the Senate, on Wednesday, 12th March 2025 read a letter from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu requesting the confirmation of Umar Yusuf Garba (Kano State), Sa\u2019ad Umar (Bauchi State), Chukwuemeka Ibeziako (Anambra State), and Mohammed Ngoshe (Borno State) as Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). However, prior to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3778,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions\/3778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}