Akwa Ibom senators want Mary Uduk, not Lamido Yuguda, confirmed as SEC DG

Albert Bassey Akpan and Chris Ekpenyong, two lawmakers from Akwa Ibom, have petitioned the upper legislative chamber over what they called “injustice”.

Speaking before he laid a petition before his colleagues at the senate on Tuesday, Akpan, representing Akwa Ibom north-east, said they were surprised when President Muhammadu Buhari nominated Lamido Yuguda as director-general (DG) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Yuguda, a former director at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was nominated by the president for the position two and half years after Mounir Gwarzo was suspended as the DG of SEC.

Akpan said Mary Uduk, who has been acting as SEC DG, was recommended to the president for confirmation but Buhari pocked Yuguda “who does not have the experience to perform like Uduk”.

“She has been capacity for two and half years and was recommended by the honourable minister of finance to the presidency but surprisingly the name that came here as SEC DG has no experience in SEC,” he said.

“We appeal to the indulgence of this chamber to do justice to Akwa Ibom state.”

But Danjuma Goje, senator representing Gombe central, kicked against the petition.

“This is something I don’t understand because it is not this senate that nominated Lamido Yuguda,” Goje said.

“It was Mr President in his own wisdom pursuant to the powers conferred on him by the constitution. Now a petition is laid before the senate. Who is going to defend that nomination before the ethics committee?”

On his part, Senate President Ahmad Lawan said the petitioners would be given an opportunity to explain their grouse.

“My understanding is that those who signed the petition will be invited by the senate committee on ethics and privileges to come and explain what they mean and if the committee finds it necessary to invite any other person,” Lawan said.

“The onus is on the petitioners, because they are going to say what they are petitioning the senate for.”