An atmosphere of uncertainty engulfed the Delta state House of Assembly on Wednesday as the alleged chairmanship nominee of a former governor in the state, Chief James Onanefe Ibori for the Delta state independent electoral commission, could not mention, to the surprise of all, the member representing his constituency in the state house of assembly.
The commission chairman designate, Barrister Mike Ogbodu, a kinsman of Ibori, among others who would serve as commissioners in the agency were quizzed by members of the house almost met brick walls after several sections.
Although their appointments were confirmed after a tensed session of corrections by the Speaker, Sheriff Oborevwori, after being taken through several classroom sessions at the chambers, by house members and a plea by the leader of the house, Tim Owhefere, to confirm their appointments.
The nominees, who had earlier submitted copies of their Curriculum Vitae to the house for assessment, almost met a brick wall when they were asked to introduce themselves.
Chairman designate of the commission, Barr Ogbodu, while introducing himself as a High Chief and a retired police commissioner, failed to submit correctly the name of his Ethiope west representative in the house.
A rowdy session erupted quickly from beneath the hallowed chambers up to the gallery where a deafening murmuring almost disrupted the screening process boldly mistook Ethiope east representative member for his.
It took Oborevwori to act swiftly to arrest the situation by schooling Chief Ogbodu that his representative in the House is Hon. Ehriatake Ibori and not Hon. Evance Ivwurie who represents Ethiope East as earlier answered.
The drama of the day was thought to have been put off when suddenly the second nominee from Ika North East, Mr. Fredrick Oduje Ulakpa introduced himself with an erroneous sentence which set the chambers back to a comic session,“My name are”!
Speaker Oborevwori who was visibly displeased with the failure on the side of the nominee, again, schooled him on the proper way of introducing one’s name.
The other nominees quickly learnt from the errors of the duo and scaled passed the introductory session as Hon. Anthony Elekeokwuri, Hon. Shola Daibo and Hon. Samuel Mariere further took turns to quiz them on questions bordering on the word ‘being independent’ and ‘free, credible and fair election’, and on how they intend to improve on the conduct of local government elections in the state.
House Leader, Hon. Tim Owhefere prayed the members of the house to grant the nominees the rare honour of taking a bow, reason that they were able to professionally answer the questions thrown at them which showed that they are fully prepared for the task ahead.
“I think the essence of the questioning was to find out their mindset towards the job they are being prepared for and what struck my attention is that they seem to understand that to do the Job for which they are nominated, they have to be unbiased,” Owhefere stated.
The speaker gave a nod to the prayer thus cutting loose the appointees from further interrogations by some members who seem agitated to ask more questions. Their confirmation was subsequently adopted by the House.
With this confirmation, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa will now approve the appointments of Chief Mike Ogbodu as Chairman, DSIEC board with Mr. Fredrick Oduje Ulakpa, Mr. Friday Edmund Seimode, Mr. James Eruorhevwameme Umukoro, Mr. Gregory Chukwuma Edeme, Light Oritseweyinmi Diden and Mrs Yvonne Ovuevo Wagbatsoma as members.
http://www.emeraldng.com/shame-disgrace-dsiec-nominees-disappoint-assembly-members/