The President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, on Tuesday changed the heads of Senate committees, with Andy Uba losing chairmanship of the influential public accounts committee.Traditionally, the public accounts committee of both the Senate and the House of Representatives are headed by opposition lawmakers and Mr. Uba was named chairman of the committee in 2015 while still a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
But since Mr. Uba, Anambra-South, decamped to the All Progressives Congress in February, Mr. Saraki, Premium Times learnt, had been under pressure from the PDP caucus to return the chairmanship of the committee to the opposition party.
Mr. Uba will now head the committee on interior, the Senate President announced moments before the end of plenary on Tuesday.
Matthew Urhoghide, PDP-Edo, was then named new chairman of the public accounts committee. Mr. Urhoghide previously headed committee on culture and tourism.
The committee on public accounts oversees the country’s ministries, departments and agencies in respect of utilisation of public funds.
It has oversight responsibility over the Office of Accountant-General