Yemi Osinbajo, the acting president of Nigeria, has sworn in two new ministers into the Federal Executive Council.
Stephen Ocheni from Kogi State and Suleiman Hassan from Gombe State were screened and confirmed by the Senate in May, 2017 and have been waiting to be brought into the federal cabinet.
The new ministers took the oath of office administered by the Professor Osinbajo on Wednesday [July 26, 2017] morning at the council chamber of the Presidential Villa before the commencement of the weekly federal cabinet meeting.
According to news reports, Osinbajo said the portfolios of the two new ministers ”will be announced shortly.”
This brings to an end a bizarre episode on Twitter in which one of the presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu took on Osinbajo’s spokesperson, Laolu Akande who had announced that his boss was going to swear in the ministers today.
Shehu branded the news report by Premium Times as “false news”, though the newspaper quoted a presidential spokesperson as the source for the report.
False News Alert! https://t.co/SQXpNekets
— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) July 25, 2017
As spokespersons, we report that which has been given to us. As it is at the moment, we have received no such information.
— Garba Shehu (@GarShehu) July 25, 2017
A bit of tension was generated over the swearing in of the ministers. There were reports that the “cabal” is preventing the vice president from doing what they consider the sole preserve of ailing President Muhammadu Buhari who has been on medical leave, outside Nigeria, since May 17, 2017.
The Trent reported that Osinbajo was “blocked” from swearing in the ministers by the Aso Rock Cabal, led by Mamman Daura, a nephew of President Buhari.
