Senate confirms 82-year-old retired judge as ambassador despite DSS report

The Senate has finally confirmed the nomination of 82-year-old Justice Sylvanus Nsofor (retd) as an ambassador.

Senate had initially rejected in March, alongside the nominee from Ondo State, Jacob Igbekele Daodu, based on the report of the Department of State Service, DSS, which indicted him for corruption.

But President Muhammadu Buhari, on April 27, re-submitted Nsofor’s name and two others – Joseph Olusola Iji, representing Ondo State, and Commodore Yusuf Jonga Hinna for Gombe State – for confirmatio​n.

​​Justice Nsofor​, born on March 17, 1935,‎ in Oguta, Imo State​ ​was earlier​ presented to the Senate with 46 others​. ​

​​But ​Senate ​rejected him, ​citing​ his frailty as reason​.​

“Although he was calm at the screening, he looked frail and tired,” Monsurat Sunmonu, chairperson of the foreign affairs committee, had explained on March 23.

“His responses to the issues raised were either not answered or devoid of details and mostly satirical,” he said.

Recall that Justice Nsofor​ had on March 1 appeared before the Senate and refused to recite the National Anthem during questioning.

“Why should I do so,” he queried the foreign affairs committee after Senator Gbenga Ashafa asked him to recite the anthem.

​Nsofor was a Judge of the High Court of Nigeria, Justice of the Court of Appeal, and Lecturer in Law at the Holborn College of Law in London‎.

However, on Wednesday, the same committee reversed itself, claiming that Nsofor had improved in the ways he responded to questions during his second screening.

Sunmonu, the chairperson, added that a report by the DSS against the nominee could not be sustained because it did not bother on criminal records but was a mere advisory based on old age.

Senate also confirmed the nominations of Olusola Iji, Ondo State, and Yusuf Hinna, Gombe State.

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