16 commissioner nominees and nine other nominees with portfolios nominated by the new Kogi State Governor, Ahmed Ododo have been screened by the Kogi State House of Assembly.
Among the 16 screened commissioner nominees, 7 are returnees while 9 are new ones.
The seven commissioner returnees are Salami Ozigi-Deedat, Bashiru Abubakar-Gegu, Wemi Jones, Kingsley Fanwo, Timothy Ojoma, Asiwaju Idris-Asiru and Mohammed Abdulmutalib.
The nine new commissioner nominees screened on Tuesday by the house are Farouk Danlam, Adams Abdulaziz, Joseph Oluwasegun-Stephen (JOS), Muzi Yinusa-Abdullahi, Rabiatu Okute, Fatima Momoh, Mohammed Yusuf,
Sunday Faleke and Abanika Taye.
Other nominees with portfolios, whose names were sent to the house for confirmation are Ali Bello – Chief of Staff to the governor, Hilary Ojoma – Deputy Chief of Staff, and Elijah Evinemi – Head of Service, Jerry Omodara – State Security Adviser and Isah Ismail – Special Adviser on Media.
The rest are Sulaiman Ibrahim – Director of General Protocol, Oladele John Nihi – Chief Press Secretary,
Shaibu Oricha – Director General Government House Administration and Femi Adegboyega – State Legal Adviser.
Sequel to time lag as claimed by the house, all the 16 commissioner nominees only appeared, introduced themselves took a bow and left without answering a single question from the lawmakers.
The speaker of the house, Alhaji Umar Yusuf, commended members of the house for a job well done at screening the 25 nominees, whom he described as credible and qualified sons and daughters of Kogi.
Yusuf tasked the nominees to live up to the expectations of Gov Ododo, whom he said nominated them to assist him pilot the affairs of the state to a greater height.