The Rivers State House of Assembly has screened and confirmed five out of the nine commissioner nominees sent for screening by Rivers state governor, Siminalayi Fubara.
The House in a televised plenary rejected four others over what the lawmakers described as their poor performance and controversies surrounding them.
The lawmakers agreed that the Speaker of the Assembly, Martins Amaewhule, should write to Fubara asking him to inaugurate only the five confirmed nominees.
“Distinguished colleagues, we have nine nominees forwarded to this Assembly by the governor. At the end of the screening exercise the House has confirmed five of them.
And four of them the House has chosen to take a deep breath given their poor performance and controversies surrounding either their documents and they have not been able to show this august assembly that they are indeed prepared to serve Rivers State or that they are able.
And we feel that they are not square pegs in square holes for the offices that they intend to occupy in the Rivers State Executive Council.
On that note, distinguished colleagues, I thank you for your contributions. With your leave and in line with our rules, I will forward the resolution of this august assembly to the governor so that he can take necessary steps for the interest of Rivers State.”the Speaker said
Those whose nominations were rejected include Prof. Datonye Alasia, Barr. Tamuno Williams, Otonye Amachree and Charity Deemua, while the commissioner-nominees given a clean bill of health by the lawmakers are Tonye Belgam, Prof. Temple Nwafor, Dr Peters Nwagor, Lekue Kenneth and Amarigha Edward-Hart.