On the report of the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes headed by Senator Chukwuka Utazi (PDP, Enugu), a lot of reactions from senators and senior politicians of South East bloodline have come in. The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and Chief Olisa Metuh, former PDP National Publicity Secretary have all reacted. The impression is that I am part of a “lynch mob” against the DSP. Far from it. I hold the distinguished DSP in the highest regards and esteem always. But that is a story for another day.

As a result of the deluge of reactions, I have had to seek further clarifications as to what transpired. What I reported, indeed, happened. The same report has been trending on social and regular media.
However, some of the reports erroneously gave the impression that it was only Senator Victor Umeh (APGA, Anambra) who opposed the confirmation of the nominees “because it did not reflect federal Character” as it excluded nominations from the South South and the South East. Other senators: Ekweremadu, Abaribe and even the chairman of the committee equally opposed it.

What happened was that Senator Utazi was overwhelmed during deliberations and had insisted that paragraph 4 component of the committee’s report, which contained names of the nominees, did not reflect federal character. I understand that he had to cave in when majority of members insisted it must go to the senate for confirmation. Senator Utazi, I also learnt, didn’t push for the rejection of the nominees by the committee since they were qualified to hold the positions for which they were nominated. He reluctantly agreed and asked that future recurrence should be avoided.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, the DSP, I understand, also opposed the committee’s report, with the latter (Ekweremadu) saying that “if the nation’s Motto is ‘Unity and Faith, Peace and Progress’, then such appointments must have national spread to reflect our unity.
But, curiously, even members of the committee who opposed the report on account of paragraph 4 still went ahead and signed it.

I decided to make these clarifications because my report gave the impression that it was only Senator Victor Umeh, who spoke during the debate on the committee’s report, particularly on the exclusion of the two zones; Senators Saraki, Ekweremadu, Abaribe, Ali Ndume, among others, too, opposed it.
I hold the DSP in high regards. I refuse to agree that I was out to “lynch” him as suggested by a top level politician. I may be wrong, but I believe the South East did not fare as much better under Jonathan when we had the dominance. And I blame our politicians….

https://etimes.com.ng/on-the-efcc-nominees-impasse-the-undeniable-truth/