Ministers: Multinational Firms Lobbying Senators to Block Nominees, Says Adeyemi

This Day

28 June 2011

Ministers: Multinational Firms Lobbying Senators to Block Nominees, Says Adeyemi

As the Senate gets set to commence the screening of ministerial nominees, Senator Smart Adeyemi from Kogi State Monday raised the alarm that they were under pressure from some hired mercenaries and lobbyists to disqualify some of the nominees.

Also Senate President David Mark Monday assured Nigerians that the long-awaited list of President Goodluck Jonathan’s ministerial nominees would get to the upper chamber Tuesday morning.

Speaking with newsmen in Abuja, Adeyemi said: “We have been under intense pressure by lobbyists and political hired mercenaries to stop some nominees from being cleared or to disqualify some nominees by asking questions to embarrass them and stop them.  They have given many of us sleepless nights with offers of millions of naira so as to discredit some nominees.”