By Obiabin Onukwugha
President Bola Tinubu has written to the Senate urging it to screen and confirm former Rivers South-East senator, Magnus Abe, as chairman of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.
Also for confirmation by the Senate are Paul Yaro Jezhi, a former Trade Union Congress chairman in Kaduna State, and Sunday Adebayo Babalola, a former deputy director at the defunct Department of Petroleum, as non-executive commissioners of the NUPRC.
The requests were contained in a letter read during plenary by Senate President, Godswill Akpabio on Tuesday.
Tinubu also asked the Senate to screen and confirm Mr Taiwo Oyedele as Minister of State for Finance, replacing Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite, as part of ongoing adjustments within the Federal Executive Council.
Until his nomination as minister, Oyedele, from Ikaram in Akoko, Ondo State, served as chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, where he spearheaded reforms aimed at overhauling Nigeria’s tax system.
Tinubu’s letters were read by Akpabio, who subsequently referred the nominations to the Senate Committee on Petroleum Upstream for further legislative action.