Anthony Ayine has been confirmed as the Auditor-General of the Federation by the Nigerian Senate. Mr Ayine who had been nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari had last year will now Florence Anyanwu who is currently occupying the post in acting capacity. However, the conformation of Mr Ayine didn’t go without a resistant as senator Binta Garba mustered efforts to stop Mr. Ayine’s confirmation, disclosing details of a petition following the presentation of the report on his screening by the chairman of the committee on public accounts, Andy Uba.
Mrs. Garba claimed Mr. Ayine is cousin of the current Head of Service and had been ‘local government auditor’. But minority leader senator Akpabio described the petition as baseless. His position was supported by the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, and George Sekibo, PDP-Rivers. They argued that Mr. Ayine had gone through the constitutional process, including writing and passing required test before he was nominated by the president. Mr. Ayine hails from Cross Rivers State whose service he joined in 1988 as Auditor II.