•Ndume, Wamakko, Tinubu, Barau, Gaya, Adeola head key groups
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has named the chairpersons for the Senate’s 69 standing panels.
He made the announcement shortly after the lawmakers unanimously voted to embark on the Senate’s annual recess.
Among the prominent senators who got what could pass for key committees are: senators Jibrin Barau, Oluremi Tinubu, Aliyu Wamakko, Ali Ndume, Kabiru Gaya, Olamilekan Adeola and Abubakar Kyari among others.
Daily Sun however gathered that there was a last minute alteration of the list by Lawan, who is the chairman of Selection Committee. The alteration, it was gathered had to do with heads of the panels.
The committee is made of the 10 principal officers of the Senate, drawn from the APC and the PDP.
According to a breakdown, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) got 49 chairmanship slots, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) got 20 chairmanship slots. Of the 23 acclaimed juicy committees, APC got 16, while the PDP got 7.
On geopolitical zone basis, North West got 16. North East got 11. North Central got 10. South West got 13. South East got 9 and South South got 10.
Overall, southern states got 32 slots; while the northern states secured 37 chairmanship positions.
In 2015, President of the Eight Senate, Bukola Saraki constituted 65 Standing Committees. Towards the end of the Assembly, four additional committees were added to the list.
Among others, Jibrin got Appropriations, Adeola- Finance, Ndume-Army, Wamakko- Defence, Tinubu-Communications, Gaya-INEC and Kyari- FCT.
