The Nigerian Senate has asked the Minister of Transport, Chibuike Amaechi, to resign his appointment as Minister or apologize to the Senate and Nigerians over the Lagos-Calabar rail project that has generated a lot controversies in the last 48 hours. Members of the National Assembly and the presidency have been at loggerheads after media reports alleged that the National Assembly members had removed the Lagos-Calabar rail project from the budget presented to it by President Buhari.

The reports alleged that the National Assembly members diverted the money meant for the said project to the Lagos-Kano project, favoring the Northern region. Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara and Chairman House Committee on Appropriation Abdulmumin Jibrin, via their twitter handles refuted the claims while the Chairman Senate Committee on Transport, Gbenga Ashafa, in a statement he released, said although the project was not included in the original budget forwarded to the National Assembly by Buhari, Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi approached his committee to include the said project.

Read the senate's position on the matter below...

The Senate today (Monday, April 11) advised the Presidency to come clean with Nigerians on the 2016 Budget and stop engaging in surreptitious campaigns of calumny against the Senate in order to cover up its serial errors.

Reacting to claims in the media credited to the Executive arm of government on the 2016 budget, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, in a statement in Abuja, said the National Assembly had bent backwards to wring a coherent document out of the excessively flawed and chaotic versions of the budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly.

He said : "while the executive is mandated to prepare and lay before the National Assembly a proposed budget detailing projects to be executed, it should be made clear that the responsibility and power of appropriation lies with the National Assembly. If the presidency expects us to return the budget proposal to them without any adjustments, then some people must be living in a different era and probably have not come to terms with democracy."

"We make bold to say however, that the said Lagos-Calabar rail project was not included in the budget proposal presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari and we challenge anyone who has any evidence to the contrary to present such to Nigerians."

Since the beginning of the 2016 budget process, it is clear that the National Assembly has suffered all manners of falsehood, deliberate distortion of facts, and outright blackmail, deliberately aimed at poisoning the minds of the people against the institution of the National Assembly. We have endured this with equanimity in the overall interest of Nigerians. Even when the original submission was surreptitiously swapped and we ended up having two versions of the budget, which was almost incomprehensible and heavily padded in a manner that betrays lack of coordination and gross incompetence, we refused to play to the gallery and instead helped the Executive to manage the hugely embarrassing situation it has brought upon itself; but enough is enough."

"This latest antics of this particular minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, is reckless, uncalled for and dangerously divisive. Apart from setting the people of the southern part of the country against their northern compatriots, it potentially sets the people against their lawmakers from the concerned constituencies and sets the lawmakers against themselves. This manner of reprehensible Mischief has no place in a democracy. We hereby demand from Mr. Amaechi a publicly tendered apology if he is not able to show evidence that the Lagos-Calabar road project was included in the budget. Otherwise, he should resign forthwith.

"Finally, by the provision of Section 81 (4) (a) and (b) of the constitution, the President is allowed to sign the budget and kick-start the implementation of the other areas that constitute over 90 percent of the budget where there is agreement between both arms, even as we engage ourselves to resolve the contentious areas, if there were any. We therefore maintain that even this contrived discrepancies are not sufficient excuse not to sign the budget into law."

"We therefore urge President Buhari to sign the 2016 budget without any further delay. For every additional day that the president withholds his assent from the bill, the hardship in the land, which is already becoming intolerable for the masses of our people gets even more complicated. Certainly, as primary representatives of the people we shall not vacate our responsibility and watch the people continue to suffer unduly."

Signed
Sen. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi
Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs

http://www.metronaija.com/2016/04/senate-ask-amaechi-to-resign.html

Nonsense.

God bless PMB

God bless Ameachi

God bless naija.

All dis nothern senators is not thier fault. If not for d stupidity of my Niger Delta brothers who are so fixated on Hating Buhari due to Instigation by the Igbos as a result of Jonathan loss, this senators wont be bold enough to openly admit adding more money to Kano rail at the expence of Calabar rail. When in d same speech, the same senator is telling us they have d power to add and remove any item from d budget.

If they can add and remove any item from d budget as they claim, why is it Niger Delta project that they are removing due to flimsy excuse that it was not on d original document despite d fact that it was presented to them in d senate as an addedum.

The simple question we need to ask this senators defending d ommission of Calabar lagos rail is this: All d constituency project they added to d budget were they in d original budget submitted to them? The increase in d amount 4 Kano rail was it in d budget submitted to them? All d new road linking thier states they added to d budget was it in in d original document submitted to them? If they can add items not submitted to them on d original document, what stop them from adding the Calabar Lagos rail project that was clearly successfully defended, discussed and submitted to them as an ammendment or addendum? Thier argument that it was not on d original document submitted to them is lame, completely outrageous and dead on arrival!!!!This people must be thinking they are speaking to morons!!!!

We all remember vividly when NASS got the Budget from the president, they said there was errors and the ministries were asked by the same NASS to correct such errors. Omission of Calabar lagos rail was one of such error. It was corrected as they asked. But for their selfish reasons, the same NASS members are trying to play on our intelligence by saying since it was not in the original document which they admit had errors, then they removed it. But they were able to add many project that favour their region in the budget even though it was not in the original budget. The rate at which my Niger Delta people are accepting this flimsy excuse from NASS base on "Technicality that is not cast on stone" beat my imagination!!! This is self destruct and insanity.

The greatest traitors to d Niger Delta right now are those fools, and extreme bitter people who are ready to kill d development of Niger Delta just because they hate Buhari 4 cheap political point.


The truth is dat Buhari got nothing to lose. He is a 72year old man who has been Governor, Minister, millitary head of state and today democratically elected president. He is already a great achiever. We Niger Delta people are being foolish and myopic. We must protest against NASS.

We must not give away what belong to us just because Jonathan lost election. Niger Delta is bigger than Jonathan loss. We must move on and stop harming ourselves. Jonathan is a Beneficiary of Niger Delta Struggle. He was never part of d struggle. We must not destroy our region just because of a benefiary who never contributed much to our region when he got d opportunity. We are just being stupid and foolish.


According to Peter Obi former Governor of Anambra state, Igbo are d cause of thier maginalisation because they dont know how to negotiate politically when others (North and South west) are negotiating for thier people. My Niger delta brothers, please we must not end up like them. We should be wiser.

The Lagos Calabar rail is just named Lagos Calabar . The Rail actually goes from Lagos to Calabar to Aba to PortHarcourt to Ughelli to Sapele to Benin and to Ore to Ibadan and back to lagos. It is South west, South South and South East rail. The rail is expected to also link Onitcha and Asaba and Warri.

We claim we are more educated than the North. We brag with our worthless PhDs. Notherners with ordinary primary Six certificates are dribbling our PhD senators like Lionel Messi, and scoring many goals like Christiano Ronaldo.






Excerpt from thisday compiled by Modath below clearly explain the whole issue.

................However, more information was brought to light monday on what transpired with respect to the Calabar-Lagos rail project, when a senior official in the presidency disclosed that its omission from the budget was caused by the Budget Office.

This came as the Chairman on the Senate Committee on Land Transport, Senator Gbenga Ashafa confirmed yesterday in a press statement that Amaechi did inform the committee of the omission of the Lagos-Calabar rail project and sent a supplementary copy of the ministry’s budget to the committee, which contained the said project.
Speaking with THISDAY in Abuja on Monday, the presidency source, who pleaded anonymity, said when the error committed by the Budget Office was discovered, Ameachi quickly forwarded a memo to the Budget Office, drawing its attention to the error and it was quickly corrected.

The source added: “Minister Ameachi did not stop there, he followed it up with several meetings with Senator Gbenga Ashafa and during the defence of the budget, Amaechi informed the committee of the omission of the Lagos-Calabar rail modernisation project and indeed sent a supplementary copy of the ministry’s budget to the committee, which contained the said project.
“I can tell you that it was the House of Representatives that removed it for obvious reasons. The ministry was harassed by the House members during the defence of the budget, demanding for one thing or the other. If Hon. Abdulmumim said the Lagos-Calabar Rail project was not in the original budget, let him also show you where N92 billion was provided for the Lagos-Kano rail project in the original budget that he is making reference to?
“On the rehabilitation of some airports, the Ministry of Transportation did make provision for them in the budget we submitted, and the National Assembly on its own appropriated N4 billion to this. They are just lying. And we challenged them to produce the report the Senate Committee on Land Transport sent to the Ministry of Transportation.”

Senator Ashafa also confirmed that Amaechi did inform the committee of the omission of the Lagos-Calabar rail project and the omission was subsequently corrected.

According to the senator, “I have carefully followed the news making the rounds in relation to the budget presented to the National Assembly and what was defended by the Ministry of Transportation before the Senate Committee on Land Transport which I have the privilege of chairing.

“The focal point of controversy seems to be the Lagos-Calabar railway modernisation project and the completion of the Idu-Kaduna rail line.
“I confirm that the Lagos-Calabar rail line was not in the original document that was presented to the National Assembly by the executive.

“However, subsequently, during the budget defence session before the Senate Committee on Land Transport, the Minister for Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, did inform the committee of the omission of the Lagos-Calabar rail project and indeed sent a supplementary copy of the ministry’s budget to the committee which contained the said project.”

The senator added that the minister had noted during the defence of the budget that the amount needed for the counterpart funding for both the Lagos to Kano and Lagos to Calabar rail modernisation projects was in the sum of N120 billion, being N60 billion per project.

Senator Ashafa said while the committee did not completely agree with all the changes made in the subsequent document, being fully aware of the critical importance of the rail sector to the development of the country, members of the Senate Committee on Land Transport keyed into the laudable (Lagos-Calabar rail modernisation) project and found ways of appropriating funds for the project without exceeding the envelope provided for the ministry.

“In so doing, the committee observed that the Lagos-Kano rail rehabilitation project had been allocated the sum of N52 billion as against the sum of N60 billion, which the minister requested as counterpart funding while no allocation whatsoever was made for the Lagos-Calabar rail line,” the Senator further stated.

“Hence, the sum of N54 billion that was discovered by the Senate Committee on Land Transport to be floating in the budget of the Ministry of Transportation as presented by the executive was injected into augmenting the funds needed for counterpart funding of both projects (Lagos-Kano and Lagos-Calabar Rail modernisation), as at the time the committee defended its report before the Senate Committee on Appropriation,” he said.

He stated that the Lagos-Calabar rail modernisation project was therefore included in the Senate Committee on Land Transport’s recommendation to the Senate Committee on Appropriation.

On the Idu-Kaduna rail completion project, Senator Ashafa said his committee did not alter what was provided in the budget as sent by the executive, being approximately N18 billion, adding that he was equally surprised to read in newspapers that the amount allocated to the said project was reduced by N8 billion.

He said while he would have preferred to wait till next Tuesday, when the National Assembly reconvenes in order to have the benefit of viewing the details of the budget that was conveyed to the executive as passed, he was compelled to place the facts in a proper perspective as it relates to the activities of his committee.

“Without prejudice to the considerations and powers of the Senate Committee on Appropriation with regard to the appropriation process, the foregoing is the true reflection of what transpired at the committee level with respect to the Land Transport sector with the Ministry of Transport,” he further stated..........................

http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/04/12/calabar-lagos-rail-project-that-was-never-listed-triggers-a-spat/

Below is the route of the Lagos calabar Rail.

Is a pity, bohari, bohari. Very unfortunate.

Na wa.. Nothing we no go see. Of course all the jonathanians would soon jump in and support this

.

mtchew...wake us up wen Amechi resign or apologise....

Shame on APC! Not everyone is a zombie

#proudly5%wailer

hmmm

Fuji house of commotion

The best time to sing that song 'NIGERIA JAGAJAGA' is now

Confusing the confuser, every confusing spirit causing confusion in Nigeria must be confused

Better

resign? When the chief of corruption saraki the chairman of senate is saying he won't resign despite all the allegation.they are joking. God destroy all the enemy of this nation Nigeria.

h

tuale4u:
All dis nothern senators is not thier fault. If not for d stupidity of my Niger Delta brothers who are so fixated on Hating Buhari due to Instigation by the Igbos as a result of Jonathan loss, this senators wont be bold enough to openly admit adding more money to Kano rail at the expence of Calabar rail. When in d same speech, the same senator is telling us they have d power to add and remove any item from d budget.

If they can add and remove any item from d budget as they claim, why is it Niger Delta project that they are removing due to flimsy excuse that it was not on d original document despite d fact that it was presented to them in d senate as an addedum.

The greatest traitors to d Niger Delta right now are those fools, and extreme bitter people who are already to kill d development of Niger Delta just because they hate Buhari 4 cheap political point.


The truth is dat Buhari got nothing to lose. He is a 72year old man who has been millitary head of state and today democratically elected president. He is already a great achiever.


We Niger Delta people are being foolish and myopic. We must protest against NASS.

We must not give away what belong to us just because Jonathan lost election. Niger Delta is bigger than Jonathan loss. We must move on and stop harming ourselves. Jonathan is a Beneficiary of Niger Delta Struggle. He was never part of d struggle. We must not destroy our region jus because of a benefiary who never contributed much to our region when he got d opportunity.

We are just being stupid and foolish.


According to Peter Obi former Governor of Anambra state, Igbo are d cause of thier maginalisation because they dont know how to negotiate politically when others (North and South west) are negotiating for thier people.

My Niger delta brothers, please we must not end up like them. We should be wiser.

The Lagos Calabar rail is just named Lagos Calabar . The Rail actually goes from Lagos to Calabar to Aba to PortHarcourt to Ughelli to Sapele to Benin and to Ore to Ibadan and back to lagos. It is South west, South South and South East rail. The rail is expected to also link Onitcha and Asaba and Warri

From the look of things it seems that you have problem with Reading. as a follow south south I would advise you to pls take at least 2 minutes of your time to read before commenting

Laughing in gibberish

Bunch of comedian+Abud Rotimi Amaechi see ur life

Can apc just handover to Jonathan And revert back to opposition please!

i now know why english and maths is needed for admission.



buhari is diassapointing nigeria

Wetin be amaechi own for the matter? Hold your transport commitee, vanguard newspaper responsible.

By extension you can also add nairaland for hiding this thread

www.nairaland.com/3040897/vanguard-broke-news-lagos-calabar-costal#44602776

OPE o! This is the kind of thread I have been looking for since morning. Any thread that doesn't make wailers wail wella is not worth frontpage jare. Oya wailers, cry me a river joor

Nigerians wake up. The future is gloomy. lie heaping on lies.

Thunder go fire senate

Lots of drama in this present administration!

God help us

[sub][/sub]

Hoping for the best....

tuale4u:
All dis nothern senators is not thier fault. If not for d stupidity of my Niger Delta brothers who are so fixated on Hating Buhari due to Instigation by the Igbos as a result of Jonathan loss, this senators wont be bold enough to openly admit adding more money to Kano rail at the expence of Calabar rail. When in d same speech, the same senator is telling us they have d power to add and remove any item from d budget.
If they can add and remove any item from d budget as they claim, why is it Niger Delta project that they are removing due to flimsy excuse if it was not on d original document despite d fact that it was presented to them in d senate as an addedum.
The greatest traitors to d Niger Delta right now are those fools, and extreme bitter people who are already to kill d development of Niger Delta just because they hate Buhari 4 cheap political point.
The truth is dat Buhari got nothing to lose. He is a 72year old man who has been millitary head of state and today democratically elected president. He is already a great achiever.
We Niger Delta people are being foolish and myopic. We must protest against NASS.
We must not give away what belong to us just because Jonathan lost election. Niger Delta is bigger than Jonathan loss. We must move on and stop harming ourselves. Jonathan is a Beneficiary of Niger Delta Struggle. He was never part of d struggle. We must not destroy our region jus because of a benefiary who never contributed much to our region when he got d opportunity.
We are just being stupid and foolish.
According to Peter Obi former Governor of Anambra state, Igbo are d cause of thier maginalisation because they dont know how to negotiate politically when others (North and South west) are negotiating for thier people.
My Niger delta brothers, please we must not end up like them. We should be wiser.

Well said

tuale4u:
All dis nothern senators is not thier fault. If not for d stupidity of my Niger Delta brothers who are so fixated on Hating Buhari due to Instigation by the Igbos as a result of Jonathan loss, this senators wont be bold enough to openly admit adding more money to Kano rail at the expence of Calabar rail. When in d same speech, the same senator is telling us they have d power to add and remove any item from d budget.
If they can add and remove any item from d budget as they claim, why is it Niger Delta project that they are removing due to flimsy excuse if it was not on d original document despite d fact that it was presented to them in d senate as an addedum.
The greatest traitors to d Niger Delta right now are those fools, and extreme bitter people who are already to kill d development of Niger Delta just because they hate Buhari 4 cheap political point.
The truth is dat Buhari got nothing to lose. He is a 72year old man who has been millitary head of state and today democratically elected president. He is already a great achiever.
We Niger Delta people are being foolish and myopic. We must protest against NASS.
We must not give away what belong to us just because Jonathan lost election. Niger Delta is bigger than Jonathan loss. We must move on and stop harming ourselves. Jonathan is a Beneficiary of Niger Delta Struggle. He was never part of d struggle. We must not destroy our region jus because of a benefiary who never contributed much to our region when he got d opportunity.
We are just being stupid and foolish.
According to Peter Obi former Governor of Anambra state, Igbo are d cause of thier maginalisation because they dont know how to negotiate politically when others (North and South west) are negotiating for thier people.
My Niger delta brothers, please we must not end up like them. We should be wiser.

Wetin we no go c for NIGERIA!