Drama as Senate Panel, Lawyers Clash Over Nexim Bank ED’s Qualifications

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

Two lawyers, Oladotun Hassan and Myson Nejo, engaged in a shouting match with members of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions at the last meeting of the panel over a petition they went to the parliament to defend.

The legal practitioners were at the committee to defend a petition they wrote against the Executive Director of Nexim bank, Stella Okotete and urged the Senate panel to probe the woman’s qualification for the job.

Trouble, however, started when the Chairman of the Ethics panel, Senator Ayo Akinyelure,appeared to be defending the embattled ED of Nexim Bank.

Controversies had  trailed  Okotete’s appointment as the ED of the bank. There were series of  protest in Abuja before the end of her tenure in 2022 with the protesters demanding her removal. The protesters alleged that Okotete was not qualified to hold the office because she was an hairdresser.

Thus, Hassan and Nejo, in their petition to the Senate, called for a reversal of Okotete’s appointment stating that she was not qualified to hold such a position.

“Given her lack of educational academic prerequisites and 18 years of banking service years of experience, non-professional technocratic competence and ongoing massive corruption at the Nexim bank, hence our clarion calls for her immediate replacement,” part of the petition read.

When Hassan and Nejo appeared before the panel they were told by Akinyelure that the Nexim bank ED sent a text message to the panel that she would not be available to attend the meeting as she was currently out of the country.

Akinyelure further explained to them that since the case was already in court, the Senate might not be able to formally hear the petition against her.

“The case is already in court but the reason I didn’t discharge the case is that I am not sure if that’s why she is here or not. She told me that she is on medical leave abroad. I magnanimously allowed that the case be heard. Let us wait till she comes and we would and we would hear from both parties,” he said.

The lawyers threw caution to the winds and flared up when, Akinyelure started making a case for the Executive Director of Nexim Bank, saying, “The President is free to appoint whoever he wishes into whatever position. This appointment is that of a development bank that doesn’t require certificates.”

His arguments and positions didn’t sit well with the petitioners as they blew hot and accused the senator of bias and lack of transparency.

Nejo said, “We don’t see the reason for coming here, because you have already taken sides, defending the woman. If you say that the case is already in court, then you don’t need to say all of this. If the Senate has done its job by monitoring things and the Central Bank of Nigeria did things rightly, there will be no need to be writing a petition.

“Things are not going in the proper manner and we have gone the extra mile to petition and the Senator is defending the woman. I am no longer interested in bringing this case before you. What we have heard from you shows that you will not go to give us a fair hearing because you are even telling us that the president is free to appoint whoever he pleases to appoint without the need for any certificate.”