₦airaland Forum

The House of Representatives on Thursday summoned the Minister of Interior, Lt-Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazzau(retd), and the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Mr. Peter Ekpendu, over an alleged assault on a female member of the House.
The the incident took place on Wednesday close to the exit gate of the National Assembly when the female lawmaker from Delta State, Mrs. Onyemachi Mrukpor, was driving out of the premises.
Security aides attached to the convoy of Ekpendu allegedly descended on her and slapped her for overtaking the convoy of the CG.
The CG was said to have visited the National Assembly and was also driving out of the legislative building when the beating took place.
Lawmakers claimed that Ekpendu, a very senior government official, merely sat in his car and watched as his aides pummelled the female member. They alleged that he did nothing to stop his aides.
A motion on the incident, which was moved by the Minority Leader of the House, Mr. Leo Ogor, was unanimously endorsed by members at Thursday’s session presided over by the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara.
The House noted, “The member was battered under the watch of the CG of prisons.
Her offence was that she overtook the convoy of the CG within the premises of the National Assembly.
“The CG of prisons is invited to explain why he should not be committed to prison in violation of Section 16 of the Legislative Houses, Powers and Privileges Act.”
The law stipulates a penalty of N400,000 fine or a prison term of six months on conviction for an attack on a legislator within the premises of a legislative house.
The resolution was later amended to include Danbazzau, who was asked to appear before the House Committee on Interior.
The Ministry of Interior is the supervisory minister of the Nigerian Prisons Service.
The committee, which is chaired by an All Progressives Congress lawmaker from Kaduna State, Mr. Adams Jagaba, is to produce a report on Tuesday, next week.
The House Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, while contributing to the debate, informed the House that Mrukpor called him immediately the alleged assault took place to make a report.
“She called me and she was crying. I have not seen a thing like this before.
“This is the time we need to rally behind her not just as a member but as a woman.
“This is a clear, straight case; that the attacker is guilty of assault; he is guilty of battery. There is vicarious liability in this case”, Gbajabiamila added.
In addition to Danbazzau and Ekpendu, the House summoned the unit heads of all security agencies posted to the National Assembly to explain the conduct of their men, who reportedly watched as the member was attacked without intervening.
They include the unit heads of the police, Department of State Services, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Sergeant-at-Arms and the Federal Road Safety Corps.

Some security operatives attached to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, are currently groaning under heavy debts as a result of the stoppage of their special allowance referred to as the Risk Cautious Allowance, The PUNCH has learnt.

Under former President Goodluck Jonathan, all the security agents enjoyed the allowance up until March, 2015, while his administration left those of April and May, 2015, unpaid.

They have not been paid the monthly allowance since May 2015 when the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari came on board despite repeated promises made to them on the issue.

The security officers include those of the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Services, the Nigerian Intelligence Agency, the Federal Road Safety Commission and the Fire Service among others.

Some of the security operatives, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity on Tuesday, lamented that they had not been able to meet their various financial obligations because of the development.

They said despite this, authorities of the Presidential Villa kept introducing additional security measures that further tasked them daily.

A policeman told our correspondent that because of the non-payment of the allowance, some policemen, who could no longer afford increasing transport fares, had converted their beats to temporary homes.

“It is not easy! We can no longer cope with the increase in transport fare. Policemen are now passing the night at their beats. In the evening, you can go to Gate 4 and 5 among other spots in the Villa to confirm this,” he said.

Another operative, a soldier, said they were feeling the brunt of the non-payment of the allowance more because most of them were junior officers who collected far less than N50,000 monthly as salary.

“I could not pay the school fee of my daughter last term. Another term is starting soon. Most of us are junior officers with less than N50,000 as salary. We always augment our salary with this small allowance but they have denied us of it,” he lamented.

Another security operative said it was not fair for the authorities to remain silent in the face of the growing disquiet over the issue.

He said the right thing to do was for them to address the operatives on efforts being made to pay them and when the payment would be done.

He added that the last they heard on the matter was when the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, directed all operatives in the Presidential Villa to fill some forms running into about five pages.

He said not satisfied with the arrangement, heads of about two security agencies asked their men not to fill the forms.

He added, “Even if the idea was to ascertain that we are truly working in the Villa, I believe that photocopies of our identity tags should be enough for the exercise?

“How can the NSA ask that we should be filling forms that run into about five pages and yet, there is still nothing to show for it?

“If the Permanent Secretary of the State House can collect our account details and he paid N15,000 to us in lieu of Easter rice and other items within two weeks, what is delaying the NSA from paying our allowance?

“These are people who keep introducing new security measures to be implemented by disgruntled officers. Today, they will ask us to thoroughly search all vehicles coming in, tomorrow they will ask us to ensure that everybody fills access forms.”

Presidential spokesmen, Mr. Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, were not available for comment on Tuesday as they were on the President’s entourage to China.

But a security expert, Mr. Mike Ejiofor, who spoke to our correspondent, took two different positions on the issue.

Ejiofor, who is a retired DSS official, agreed that security operatives, who guided the President or were on special postings, were entitled to special allowances which were meant to encourage them in order not to compromise or undermine their loyalty.



He said, “People who guide the President or on special postings are entitled to special allowances to encourage them and to ensure that their loyalty is not undermined, or that they do not go about begging for money.

“I am not saying that they cannot be begging for money if they are paid this allowance, but the situation will be worse if they are not paid.

“But again, authorities may have their reasons for not paying this allowance, possibly because of the change agenda. If that is the case, the security operatives should also adapt.”

In the past, senior officers were said to be receiving about N30,000 per month as their special allowance while junior officers got about N25,000.

The leadership of the House of Representatives on Monday opened the can of worms on the lingering crisis over the padding of the 2016 budget proposal sent to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The House specifically, accused members of the Buhari’s cabinet of unilaterally proposing new projects to be inserted into the 2016 budget without the express approval of the Presidency.

The House further alleged that the Lagos-Calabar railway project was one of such projects proposed by the Federal Ministry of Transport which was initiated during the budget defence but was turned down at the peak of the alleged padding of the budget which led to the sack of some top government officials.

Abdulrasak Namdas, chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, who stated this at a press briefing held at the National Assembly complex, Abuja, however, said: “The media is awash with story that the National Assembly has removed the Calabar- Lagos railway project from the budget. I want to make it very clear that we don’t have that in the presentation made by the President to the National Assembly, so we couldn’t have removed what was not even inserted in the first place.

“I have here with me the Appropriations bill which you can check. In this budget by Mr. President we don’t have the Calabar-Lagos railway project.
“It was the Minister of Transport that brought the Calabar- Lagos railway to be included in the budget. We want to state clearly, that the budget is something that is proposed by the President we do not receive budget from Minister.

“So for somebody to say that we actually removed the Calarbar- Lagos railway project from the budget, I think someone is trying to smear our good image.
“We want to state again that all that was sent to the National Assembly from the supplementary budget and others had a smooth scale. And it is on record that on this budget, some people lost their jobs because of this budget, the Executive have admitted that some bureaucrats tampered with the budget.
“In the interest of this country, if we pass the budget and transmit it to the President and the President discovered some things that he want to be included he should send the budget back and we will take a look at it but right now, there is no official notice to the National Assembly that the President will not sign the budget.

“It’s the Minister of Transport, it’s in the papers that the Minister of Transport presented another additional estimate to the committee on Senate but not to the joint sitting and we receive things from the President, not the ministers.

maoolakanm:
WHERE WAS HE WHEN MADAM NOI AND THE BUFFON WERE PLUNGING NIGERIA INTO THIS MESS?.

Inspectahdeck:
The funds in TSA account belong to institutions e.g. nnpc, federal institutions etc. They need monies to run their operations, thus government needs to source funds from other means.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said President Muhammadu Buhari would negotiate for fresh loans with the Chinese government.

Mohammed also said the government must resort to borrowing, in order to finance the 2016 Budget, noting that government revenue had diminished drastically, owing to the fall of crude oil in the international market.

The president who is on a working visit to China is expected to attract more investors from China to Nigeria.

The minister who spoke yesterday evening on a current affair programme of Channels Television, Politics Today, noted that the borrowed funds would be deployed into capital projects, such as road, power and agriculture.

“Borrowing will be used for capital expenditure, government must borrow, if you look at the situation we are in. Crude which used to sell for over $100 per barrel, now sells for less than $40, and our overheads are the same, infrastructures are increasing and we have to maintain them,” the minister said.

When pointedly asked, if the government is currently serving any loan with Chinese government, the minister said the loans are long term loans which are serviced within a period of 30 to 40 years.

“When we talk about Nigeria’s debt profile, it is the borrowing from 1960, these loans are not short term loans, they are loans serviceable for a period of about 40 years,” he said.
Speaking on the lingering fuel scarcity rocking the nation, the minister promised that the ugly situation would subside, as he said 1,300 trucks loaded with petrol would discharge fuel at filling stations from today.

“We have been able to bring the situation back to normal, 1300 trucks will supply fuel all over Nigeria,” he said.

The minister however, urged Nigerians to exercise patience with the government, as he assured that the change Nigerians voted for would manifest eventually.
“The change Nigerians voted for is real, the challenges we are facing is temporal, the change will come,” the minister said.

OKDnigeria:
Investigations by our correspondents at
the National Assembly showed that the
majority of the 109 senators and the 360
members of the House of Representatives
had no knowledge of the details of the
2016 budget before they passed the
document on March 23.

It was learnt on Sunday that the
lawmakers placed too much confidence
on the judgment of the Joint National
Assembly Committee on Appropriation,
chaired by Senator Danjuma Goje and
Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, to work out the
details that they reportedly paid less
attention to the work of the committee.

One senior legislative official, who
followed the budget through, said, “Let
the truth be told; the budget was passed
without any information on the
breakdown.

“We all trusted the committee that due
to the pressure to pass the budget, the
members should work out the details
while we passed the highlights.
“The news of inserting projects or
removing some came as a surprise to
many us.”

There were indications on Sunday that the National Assembly’s peace moves with the executive over the 2016 budget crisis had flopped.

The PUNCH learnt that as part of the peace moves, the National Assembly had, on Saturday, reached out to the executive and asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the document and then send a supplementary budget to the lawmakers.

It was gathered that the President did not accept the suggestion against the backdrop that the distortions in the budget discovered in the document transmitted by the National Assembly were too many.

A minister, who confided in The PUNCH, said both arms of government had been discussing the issue, but the President had been advised by members of his cabinet not to sign the appropriation bill.

“The National Assembly has initiated some peace moves. The lawmakers have suggested that the budget should be signed by the President before he will send a supplementary budget to cover the omissions, but he had turned down the proposal,” a competent source told one of our correspondents on Sunday.

Also, a competent Presidency source told The PUNCH on condition of anonymity on Sunday that with the level of distortions noticed in the document returned to the President, there was no way he could have been advised to append his signature to the budget.

The source stated, “I can confirm to you that the President has been advised not to sign the budget as it is. The initial plan was for him to sign it before going to China and thereafter present a supplementary budget to the National Assembly.

“But as it is, with the level of distortions noticed, the President has been advised not to sign it at all.”

It was gathered that Buhari on Sunday afternoon met behind closed doors with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, in continuation of his consultation on the budget.

The meeting was held inside the President’s official residence in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The meeting was held shortly before Buhari left Abuja for China on a one-week official visit.

It was learnt that the meeting was a follow-up to an earlier one held by the President with the leadership of the National Assembly.

Presidential spokesmen, Mr. Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, were not available for comments on Sunday as they were on the President’s entourage to China.

Investigations by our correspondents at the National Assembly showed that the majority of the 109 senators and the 360 members of the House of Representatives had no knowledge of the details of the 2016 budget before they passed the document on March 23.

It was learnt on Sunday that the lawmakers placed too much confidence on the judgment of the Joint National Assembly Committee on Appropriation, chaired by Senator Danjuma Goje and Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, to work out the details that they reportedly paid less attention to the work of the committee.

One senior legislative official, who followed the budget through, said, “Let the truth be told; the budget was passed without any information on the breakdown.

“We all trusted the committee that due to the pressure to pass the budget, the members should work out the details while we passed the highlights.

“The news of inserting projects or removing some came as a surprise to many us.”

It was learnt that in the case of the House of Representatives in particular, only the Chairman, Jibrin, and a few members of the Committee on Appropriation sat to work on the details of the budget without the knowledge of other members.

“Although members of the committee were asked to stay behind during the Easter break for the purpose of working on the details, they were not called to meetings to work on the details.

“What we heard was that some consultants were hired by the chairman to work on the details, while he pleaded with members for understanding because of the exigencies of time,” another legislative official disclosed to The PUNCH.

As the development unfolded, opposition party lawmakers, in a surprise move, backed Buhari’s objections to the budget, saying the President was right.

Speaking on their behalf, the Minority Leader of the House and member of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Leo Ogor, told The PUNCH that Buhari was free to reject the budget if it did not fall in line with his economic agenda.

Citing the alleged removal of the Lagos-Calabar rail line project from the budget, Ogor noted that the President must have made provision for it because he believed it would be a major boost to his economic agenda.

Ogor stated that the Committees on Transport and all other committees supervising agencies whose projects were removed would have to explain whether the removal was done with their knowledge.

However, Jibrin took to his Twitter handle to respond to allegations levelled against the National Assembly and specifically the Committee on Appropriation.

In a series of tweets, he addressed some of the issues one after another.

In the tweets, he said, “The Lagos-Calabar rail (line project) was never included. How could NASS have removed what was not there? But the nation is being misled.

“This is unfortunate as it is quite clear to all and sundry that #Budget2016 and all its headaches and controversies didn’t emanate from NASS.

“We will come up with a comprehensive position especially with respect to our observation of the budget and what we did to make it better.”

He added, “What NASS did with the N54bn? We added N39.7bn to the Lagos-Kano Rail project. This will help complete the project once and for all.

“That N50bn be set aside as special bursary for students of tertiary institutions.”

When contacted, the Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, on Sunday, said he was not aware of any meeting between the leadership of the National Assembly and the Presidency over the 2016 budget.

Ndume, who spoke in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja, said, “Our concern as Nigerians should be how to collectively move the nation forward instead of writing on speculations that could heat up the polity.”

Attempts to get the Director, Information, Ministry of Budget and Planning, Mr Charles Dafe, to comment on steps being taken to resolve the grey areas in the budget were not successful.

The Senate on Sunday also denied allegations of padding levelled against the appropriation committees of the National Assembly.

Senate spokesman, Senator Abdullahi Sabi, said in Abuja that the Constitution of Nigeria did not make the legislature a rubber stamp.

He said, “I can say authoritatively that we did not pad the budget at all. I reject that in its entirety. We appropriated in line with what we believe the issues are and we did so in consultation with the Ministries, Departments and Agencies.”

He added that the National Assembly, in reality, helped the executive to pass a badly written budget, saying having done its job within the law, the lawmakers expected the executive to follow the constitutional process.

OKDnigeria:
Speaking yesterday, Shehu told the newspaper that
“there was no need for him to be present to study
the budget details. The meeting didn’t require the
president’s presence.

Despite being at the State House where the meeting was held, President Muhammadu Buhari did not show up for the emergency Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting convened yesterday to scrutinise details of the 2016 Appropriation Bill sent to him by the National Assembly.
The extra-ordinary meeting, which was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, was attended by cabinet members, heads of ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, as well as some presidential aides.

Revealing why his principal did not show up for the meeting, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, told Daily Trust that there was no need for him to be there, adding that there was likely to be more of such meetings.

Speaking yesterday, Shehu told the newspaper that “there was no need for him to be present to study the budget details. The meeting didn’t require the president’s presence.

“It (the extraordinary budget meeting) is ongoing. We might even have other meetings of this.”

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed had told State House correspondents after the meeting that it was convened to give ministers the opportunity to look at the budget details and how their respective ministries were affected.

erekoshe:
And you're happy about it?? One day they'll come for you and nobody will defend you because those in power disregard the law

wirinet:
Wailers must wail. This particular wailing is senseless.



Now can you help explain why Diezani Madueke spent N10 billion in two years to charter Planes despite the privilege of having it for free.

Ezeanochie:
This will teach Efcc not to arbitrary detain someone

Ezeanochie:
This will teach Efcc not to arbitrary detain someone

Justice James Tsoho of a federal high court sitting in Abuja has declared as unlawful, the arrest and detention of former Acting Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Uche Secondus.

‎The court also awarded N10 million damages against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Secondus had approached the court to enforce his fundamental human rights, which he claimed were violated by EFCC.

In the motion before the court, he asked Justice Tsho to declare his arrest and detention illegal‎.
He also asked the court to award damages against the commission.

In his ruling, the judge said, “The first prayer of the applicant is hereby granted and the sum ‎of N10million damages is hereby awarded against the respondent (EFCC)”.

A month ago, EFCC arrested Secondus f‎or illegally receiving buses on behalf of his party.
The anti-graft agency then asked him to return the buses.

The Nigerian Navy Wednesday disclosed that it has postponed the recruitment exercise for the 2016 batch 25 trainees initially slated to hold nationwide from Saturday 9th April.

Vanguard’s investigation revealed that the decision of the Naval authorities to postpone the exercise may not be unconnected with the huge volume of applicants, (about 300, 000) that have showed interest in joining the force.

It would be recalled that following the new federal government policy, applications for recruitment into any security agency is free.

With just about 3, 000 slots available in the recruitment exercise, the Naval authorities felt it was better a new digital approach is applied to handle the huge volume of application and avoid any calamitous occurrences such as witnessed in the past in the Immigration episode , Vanguard further gathered.

A statement from Naval Headquarters on the postponement, signed by the Director of Naval Information, Commodore Christian Ezekobe said, “The Aptitude Test for applicants of the 2016 Nigerian Navy Recruitment Exercise initially scheduled to hold nationwide on Saturday 9 April 2016 has been postponed.

“The Exercise will now hold on Sat 14 May 2016 at all the designated centers nationwide as earlier planned.

“The shift in date is necessitated by the desire of the Nigerian Navy to ensure a well-planned and hitch-free Recruitment Exercise.

“Therefore, the Nigerian Navy regrets any inconveniences the postponement will cause to parents and candidates.

“More so the general public is hereby informed that there is ‘NO’ extension of date for submission of online application forms. The submission of online application forms ended Friday 1st April 2016.”