The Senate has dismissed as false and malicious, claims that its leadership received a $10 million bribe to stop the confirmation of Mr. Abdullahi Garba Ramat as Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
In a statement issued on Friday in Abuja, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, said Ramat’s confirmation was suspended due to “a baggage of public and private complaints” filed against him, not as a result of any inducement.
The clarification followed an allegation by Alwan Hassan, a former Special Adviser to ex–Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who accused the leadership of the 10th Senate of collecting a $10 million bribe to frustrate Ramat’s confirmation.
Describing the allegation as “baseless and satanic verses of a political mercenary,” Adaramodu said the Senate would pursue legal action to compel Hassan to provide evidence to support his claims in court.
“The attention of the Senate has been drawn to the uncoordinated cacophony of one innocuous Alwan Hassan, who is a hand-tool to Mr. Abdullahi Garba Ramat,” Adaramodu stated. “Mr. Alwan ludicrously alleged that the Senate was compromised by yet-to-be-disclosed ghosts to reject the nomination and confirmation of Mr. Ramat.”
He explained that the Senate’s decision to step down Ramat’s nomination was based on legitimate public concerns, emphasizing that similar actions had been taken against other nominees in the past when serious petitions were raised.
Adaramodu reaffirmed that the Senate acted strictly within its constitutional responsibility and would not be distracted by what he described as attempts to malign the integrity of the National Assembly.
