Senator Amosun’s Ally, Sarafat Ishola; Demola Seriki top Buhari’s Envoys list

President Muhammadu Buhari, has approved the deployment of a former Minister of State for Defence, Demola Seriki, to Spain as the Nigerian Ambassador while a former Minister of Mines and Steel, Sarafat Ishola, will serve as the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Ishola, who is from Ogun State, is also an ally of a former Governor of the state, Senator Ibikunle Amosun.

Also, the Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, Debo Adesina, will serve as the Ambassador to Togo.

About 11 ambassadors were re-appointed but eight were retained in their current countries of posting while three others were redeployed.

The current Nigerian Ambassador to Ireland, Dr Uzoma Emenike, who is also a career diplomat, was posted to the United States as the ambassador, while M.I. Bashir will serve as deputy ambassador.

In all, there are 52 non-career envoys posted out by the President and 43 career ambassadors based on the confirmed list from the Senate.

According to the list, the eight ambassadors that will remain at their duty posts include:  Mohammed Rimi (United Arab Emirates), Jidda Baba (China), Gani Bura (Lebanon), Yusuf Tuggar (Germany), Baba Madugu (Switzerland) and Deborah Illiya (Congo).

Ambassador Tijani Muhammmad-Bande will also retain his position as the Permanent Representative to the United Nations, New York while Adeyinka Asekun will remain the High Commissioner to Canada.

However, Modupe Irele, who is the current Ambassador to France, will be redeployed to Hungary while Eniola Ajayi, the Ambassador to Hungary is expected to be redeployed to the Netherlands.

For non-career diplomats, Ms Ijeoma Chineyerem will resume as the Ambassador to Ireland, Oma Djebah will be posted to Thailand, Abdulahi Shehu (Russia), Haruna Manta (South Africa), Kayode Laro (France), Paul Adikwu (The Vatican), Abubakar Moriki (Japan), Mrs. Opunimi Akinkugbe (Greece) and Ali Magashi (South Korea).

Other postings include M.O. Abam (Italy), N.A. Kolo (Israel), A. Sule (India), G.Y. Hamza (Ghana), A.N. Madubike (Australia) and O.C Onowu (Belgium).

The remaining appointees will be expected to serve as deputy ambassadors or heads of mission. They include A.E. Alleboy (Deputy Ambassador to France), G.E. Edokpa (Deputy Permanent Representative to The UN), Ben Okoyen (Cuba), G.M. Okeke (Deputy Head of Mission to Switzerland),  S.Sani to London, (Deputy High Commissioner to UK), I.A Iwejuo (Ethiopia as Deputy Ambassador), I.A. Alatishe (Deputy Ambassador to Russia) and I.R. Ocheni (Germany).

The ambassadorial nominees had been waiting for their postings several months after they had been confirmed by the Senate.

The President, however, approved their postings last week.