The Presidency has acknowledged and apologised for the errors made in listing some dead persons as chairmen and members of boards of government agencies and parastatals.
The appointment of the chairmen and members of board of the government agencies was announced in Abuja on Friday by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Bob Mustapha.
But on the long list are some deceased persons.
They include a Second Republic senator, Mr. Francis Okpozo who was appointed the Chairman of the Nigerian Press Council.
Okposo died sometime in 2016 in Edo State.
Another deceased person on the list is Christopher Ierwua Utov, who has been appointed to the board of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research.
Mr. Utov was a Catholic priest from Logo Local Government Area of Benue State who died on March 18.
Another deceased person on the list is a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Donald Ugbaja, who is said to have died weeks back in Delta State.
Seriously embarrassed, Nigerians have launched attack on the Presidency for the development.
But reacting on Saturday the Presidency described it as an error.
“No human undertaking can be free of mistakes,” the Presidency said in a statement signed by President Muhammadu Buhari’s media aide, Malam Garba Shehu.
According to him, the error on the list was not enough to describe the exercise as scandalous.
“There is no scandal,” he said.
Shehu explained that the names of dead appointees in the list came about because the list had been compiled by the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal.
Garba Shehu said “the list has a history” which explained the controversy around it.
“In 2015, Mr. President requested all state chapters of the party to submit names of 50 party members for board appointments,” Shehu said.
Read also: UNBELIEVABLE: Buhari Appoints Dead Men into Boards of FG’s Parastatals, Agencies
He said the names where compiled by the national secretariat of the APC and forwarded to the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal.
“However, complaint arose from some governors who felt they were not carried along in the process. To answer this, the president constituted a committee under the vice president to review and reflect the interest of the governors.”
Shehu said action was delayed on the report of the committee headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as President Muhammadu Buhari took ill.
“The president’s trips for medical attention slowed down completion of the process.
“The current SGF was only directed to complete that process by releasing the list which he apparently did without altering it,” Shehu explained.
President Muhammadu Buhari had set up in October 2015 a Presidential Committee headed by the former SGF, Babachir Lawal to recommend people to be appointed to government boards and agencies.
Members of the board were drawn from the six geo-political zones of the federation.
The members were Alhaji Mai Mala Buni (northeast); Alhaji Zakari Ede (northcentral); Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir (northwest); Chief Hillard Etagbo Eta (south-south); Chief Pius Akinyelure (southwest); Chief Emmanuel Eneukwe (southeast) and Mr. Gideon Sammani, a senior special assistant to the president as secretary
In November 2016, President Buhari removed Babachir from headship of the committee, following some allegations made against Babachir.
Vice President Osinbajo was asked to take over.
The chairman of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agencies (NDLEA) Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah was also appointed to head the secretariat of the committee.
Part of Osinbajo’s mandate was to meet all the stakeholders, including the Senate President Bukola Saraki, House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) Chairman, Abdulaziz Yari, APC Governors Forum Chairman Rochas Okorocha and representatives of the governors in each of the six geo-political zones.
