Auditor General Nominee, Ukpaka, Narrowly Survives Delta Assembly’s Confirmation

By Patrick Ochei

A Level 17 Director Audit and career civil servant, Mr. Ukpaka Ikenna who was nominated for the position of Auditor General, Local Government by the Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori has narrowly survived the confirmation of the State Assembly due to the avoidable errors in his Curriculum Vitae.

Ukpaka was eventually pardoned but was asked to withdraw copies of the CV within 24 hours and replace them for documentation.

Addressing the matter before asking the Majority Leader to move for Mr. Ukpaka’s confirmation, the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Emomotimi Dennis Guwor said, “As humans, we are prone to errors, but this one is obviously unfortunate coming from an Auditor who should be extremely diligent in auditing and editing errors. However, this error is pardonable, but you may wish to withdraw all copies of your CV in the next 24 hours and resubmit the corrected versions for record keeping.

“This is a House of records. How can you refer to a Non Sitting Member of the House as still serving and also referred to a former Auditor General whom you are taking over from as still serving. We will forgive you but you have to provide us with fresh copies of your CV after correcting the errors. We will be magnanimous to tamper justice with mercy.

“Nevertheless, if you are confirmed, you must ensure that documents presented to you for audit are properly and carefully checked”, Guwor advised.

Mr. Ukpaka’s trouble began after he was asked to introduce himself and tell the House the name of his representative in the Assembly. He said it was Hon. Marilyn Okowa-Daramola, representing Ika North East State Constituency.

However, during questioning by lawmakers, it was spotted that he used Reference instead of Referees, while referring to one of his Referees – Hon. Anthony Emeka Elekeokwuri as if he was still serving and the other who was a former Auditor General as if he was still in office too.

ALSO READ: Finidi George Nominates Amokachi, Three Foreign Assistant Coaches

These errors got him some backlash from members who were disappointed that such a man going into such an investigative office should make such errors. He was demonised for demystifying the sanctity of the office of Auditor General by such avoidable errors.

He was however saved by the attestations of the member representing Okpe State Constituency, Hon. James Augoye who vouched for his competency and diligence having worked with him, thereby pleading for leniency on his behalf over what he termed “typographical errors”.