Rubber Stamp?: Senate confirms EFCC board member whose CV shows he started school before birth

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Yahaya Muhammad (Yobe State) as a board member of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

But a senator noted that Muhammad’s curriculum vitae (CV) showed that he started school before he was born.

The senator representing Jigawa North East, Hassan Hadejia, said there was a discrepancy in the sequence of Muhammad’s educational experience because he was allegedly born on September 29, 1969 but started school at Central Primary School in 1968.

In his committee’s report, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Suleiman Abdu Kwari (Kaduna North), urged the Senate to confirm Muhammad and other nominees.

Kwari said the nominees were found to have nothing incriminating against them.

But Hadejia said: “My name is Senator Hassan Hadejia, representing Jigawa Northeast Senatorial District. Let me bring to the notice of the House certain discrepancies in the report, which are contradictory, especially with regards to one of the nominees, Alhaji Yahaya Muhammad, on Page 8, where the nominee, according to record, started his primary school before he was born.

“There is also an overlap in the sequence of his educational experience because here he was born on September 29, 1969 and he started his education at Central Primary School in 1968.

“Then he was in Borno Teachers’ College from 1975 and 1988 while simultaneously he was in the College of Administration Studies from 1980 to 1981.

“If these are typographical errors, Mr. President, maybe we should have them corrected for the sake of our record.”

The Senate did not resolve or seek to correct the discrepancies Hadejia drew his colleagues’ attention to before confirming Muhammad for appointment as EFCC board member.

Muhammad hails from Yobe State, like Senate President Ahmad Lawan, who was not present at plenary.

(Courtesy The Nation: Excluding headline’)