Senate rejects Akinwande for NERC Chairman, ask for new nominee

 

THE inability of the nominee of President Muhammadu Buhari for the chairmanship position of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Professor Akintunde Akinwande to appear before Senate Committee on Power has prompted the Senate to reject his nomination and requested for another nominee for confirmation.

Upper chamber of national assembly at the plenary on Tuesday said Professor Akinwande failed to appear before the senate twice in October, a move that was interpreted as a rejection of the appointment.

Other nominees who were confirmed to the board of the commission by senate are Sanusi Garuba (vice chairman), Nathan Shatti (commissioner), Dr. Moses Arigu (commissioner), Dafe Akpeneye (commissioner), Prof. Frank Okafor (commissioner) and Musiliu Oseni (commissioner).

President Muhammadu Buhari had in July 2016 nominated Akintunde Akinwande, a professor in the electrical engineering and computer science department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as the executive chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.