Nigeria’s House of Representatives has constituted an ad-hoc committee to screen the recently appointed Chief of Defence Staff and Service Chiefs.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had on June 19, 2023 appointed new Chief of Defence Staff (Major General Christopher Gwabin Musa), Chief of Army Staff (Major General Taoreed A Lagbaja), Chief of Naval Staff (Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla ) and Chief of the Air Staff (Air Vice Marshal Hassan Bala Abubakar).
Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, who announced the setting up of the panel on Tuesday at plenary, said all the eight principal officers of the House from the majority and minority parties would be part of the ad-hoc committee.
He also announced the immediate past chairman of the House Committee on Defence, Babajimi Benson, as the co-chairman of the committee.
The members of the committee include the Majority Leader, Prof Julius Ihonvbere (APC/Edo); Deputy Majority Leader, Abdullahi Ibrahim Halims (APC/Kogi); Chief Whip, Bello Usman Kumo (APC/Gombe); and Deputy Chief Whip Adewunmi Oriyomi Onanuga (APC/Ogun).
Others include the Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda (PDP/Rivers); Deputy Minority Leader, Aliyu Sani Madaki (NNPP/Kano); Minority Whip, Ali Isa (PDP/Gombe) the George Ozodinobi (LP/Anambra) as Deputy Minority Whip.
The president had in a letter to the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, conveyed the nominations of the service chiefs to the National Assembly for their confirmation.