Dare Babalola
Senator Ali Ndume representing Borno South Senatorial District has explained why the upper chamber did not discover the alleged certificate forgery of the former Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Uche Nnaji.
According to Ndume, who appeared on Channels Television on Thursday, the role of the Senate is to confirm the persons nominated for appointment by the presidency, not to directly screen them.
He noted that the State Security Service was responsible for the screening of nominees before they were confirmed by the Senate.
He said, “We are not screening. Get this clear. Screening and confirmation are two different things. Before the president sends a candidate to the Senate, there are a lot of processes, including screening him not only on certificates, but also conducting a background check by the SSS. The SSS has to clear him.
“This matter of forgery in Nigeria is a big problem, not only restricted to the political class, but even you now, I don’t know your certificates. Everybody, all of these people have classmates. All these people, Nnaji, have classmates.
“Last time the SSS brought something against somebody, and we dropped the person. So don’t say we are not doing our job. We are not even to do the screening; we are to do confirmation.”
Nnaji recently resigned his position following allegations of forgery of his degree and National Youth Service Corps discharge certificates.
Nnaji has, however, described the investigative piece into his alleged forgery by the PREMIUM TIMES as an “orchestrated, sustained campaign of falsehood” against him in a statement following his resignation.
