Senate Stops Screening of Three Ministerial Nominees Over Alleged Forgery, Age Falsification

The Nigerian Senate, on Monday, halted the screening of three ministerial nominees for alleged age forgery and age falsification, among others.

TrackNews reports that of the 14 nominees listed on the order paper for screening, seven were asked to take a bow and go, four others were screened and three were stopped.

But those whose screening was put on hold and asked to clarify issues were Prof. Joseph Utsev, who is currently the Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Wannune, the hometown of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Senator George Akume.

Utsev, who hails from Buruku Local Government Area of Benue State, in his resume, indicated that he was born in 1980 and finished his primary education in 1989 at the age of nine, thereby drawing the attention of the Senate on how he would be in primary one at the age of three.

The two others were Senator Abubakar Sani Danladi from Taraba, who was alleged to have been banned by the Supreme Court from holding public office for ten years and Bello Mohammed from Sokoto State whose case had to do with his Secondary School Leaving Certificate.

Reacting to the development, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio said the nominees who had issues would have their cases looked into at the stage of confirmation.

The nominees whose names appeared on the Order Paper, but were not screened included Ahmed Musa Dangiwa from Katsina State; Chief Uche Geoffrey Nnaji from Enugu State and Stella Erhuvwuoghene Okotete from Delta State.