UPDATED: Buhari sends names of new ministerial nominees to Senate

President Muhammadu Buhari has nominated two persons as minister and is seeking the approval of the Senate for their appointment, it has been reliably learnt.

A communication on the ministerial nominees was sent to the Senate on Tuesday night.

A source close to the leadership of the Senate told our correspondent that the two nominees would fill the slots of Kogi and Gombe states in the federal cabinet.

The Kogi nominee will succeed the late Minister of State for Labour, Mr. James Ocholi (SAN) who died in an accident, while the Gombe nominee would replace former Minister for the Environment, Ms Amina Mohammed, who is now the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations.

The list of ministerial nominees got to the Senate some hours after the upper chamber of the National Assembly, in protest, suspended consideration of the request by the Presidency to approve the appointment of 27 Resident Electoral Commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The lawmakers had protested against the failure by the President to remove Mr. Ibrahim Magu as Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission after his nomination was rejected by the Senate two weeks ago.