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Tag: Dogara

  • Dogara hails Odusile’s election as FAJ President

    Dogara hails Odusile’s election as FAJ President

    House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara has described the election of the National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Abdulwaheed Odusile  as the President, Federation of African Journalists (FAJ) as another landmark achievement for  Nigerian journalists.

    Dogara in a congratulatory message yesterday by his spokesman, Turaki Hassan, however advised the new FAJ President to bring his wealth of experience to bear in developing journalism profession and protection of the freedom of the press in Africa.

    Urging Odusile to dedicate his tenure in enhancing professionalism in the continent so as to contribute to the enthronement of democratic culture in Africa, the Speaker also advised him to focus attention on policies and programmes aimed at ensuring the safety and security of journalists who have of late been subjected to all forms of hazards and insecurity in the discharge of their duties.

    The Speaker also lauded FAJ, which is the African regional association of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) for successfully holding its fourth Congress in Abuja.

  • Jonathan’s cousin writes Dogara over detention

    Jonathan’s cousin writes Dogara over detention

     Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s cousin Azibaola Robert has asked  the House of Representatives to intervene in his alleged detention  without charge by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Robert’s family, in a petition to the leadership of the House, is seeking justice in the abuse and violation of his rights.

    The petition alleged that the arrest and detention of Robert was part of a larger plot by the anti-graft agency to implicate the former President.

    While faulting the allegations against Robert, the family claimed he did a job for the Office of the National Security Adviser  (ONSA), which was still indebted to his company.

    The petition reads: “Mr. Azibaola Robert is the managing director of ‘Kakatar Engineering and Construction Company Limited’, and its sister company, ‘One Plus Holdings Limited’.

    ‘’He is a cousin to ex- President Goodluck Jonathan”.

    “Recently, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested Mr. Robert for alleged $40 million contract, which the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) awarded to ‘One Plus Holdings Limited’ for the surveillance and security of oil pipelines in the Niger Delta.

    “The ONSA is at present indebted to the company (One Plus Holdings Limited) to about $4 million, being final payment for the surveillance/oil pipeline security contract.

    “Mr. Robert was arrested and taken into EFCC custody on March 23, 2016, and has spent over a month in EFCC detention, without any formal charge. Preceding his arrest, however, was a raid on his house by armed mobile policemen who in the process subjected his wife and young children to the most dehumanising and traumatic ordeal.

    “In EFCC custody, Mr. Robert was denied access to his family, lawyers and medicare and repeatedly bullied, harassed, threatened and psychologically traumatised by EFCC operatives, and no formal charge brought against him.

    “Curiously, his interrogators have told him to say something to finger and/or implicate former President Jonathan, his cousin, as a ‘front’ or beneficiary of the surveillance/security contract; else he would face the “Dasuki treatment” and rot away in EFCC custody.”

  • Jonathan’s cousin petitions Dogara over detention

    Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s cousin, Azibaola Robert, has sought the intervention of the House of Representatives over his alleged detention without charge by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    Robert’s family, in a petition to the leadership of the House, is seeking for justice in the violation of his fundamental human rights.

    The petition alleged that the arrest and detention of Robert was part of a larger plot by the anti -graft agency to implicate the former President.

    While faulting the allegations against Robert, the family claimed that he carried out a job for the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) that was still indebted to his company.

    The petition reads in part: “Mr. Azibaola Robert is the Managing Director of ‘Kakatar Engineering and Construction Company Limited’ and its sister company, ‘One Plus Holdings Limited’. He is a cousin to former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and a law abiding and peace loving Nigeria.

    “Recently, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested the said Mr. Azibaola Robert over allegations of a $40 million contract which the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) awarded to ‘One Plus Holdings Limited’ for the surveillance and security of oil pipelines across the Niger Delta.

    “The ONSA is at present indebted to the company (One Plus Holdings Limited) to about $4 million, being final payment for the said surveillance/oil pipeline security contract.

    “Mr. Azibaola Robert was arrested and taken into EFCC custody on 23rd March, 2016 and has since spent over a month in EFCC detention, without any formal charge brought against him. Preceding his arrest, however was a raid on his house by scores of heavily armed mobile policemen who in the process subjected his wife and young children to the most dehumanizing and traumatic ordeal.”

     

  • Top teams show class at Dogara Polo Cup competition

    Top teams show class at Dogara Polo Cup competition

    THE Yakubu Dogara Polo Cup competition that took place at NSK farms, Keffi Nasarawa state last Saturday has been described as exciting and competitive.

    According to the Speaker House of Representative, represented by his Special Assistant, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, while presenting the Yakubu Dogara Cup and Awards said that the game of polo has become such a unifying game in Nigeria that needs to be supported. He said the next edition of the tournament will be bigger and better.

    The tournament, which is part of the annual NSK Farms Polo, featured all the big names in polo such as the Sultana Farms polo team, the Dongoyaro Farms polo team, Askira polo team, the Iyatu Farms polo team, and the hosts team the NSK polo team.

    The first match between Sultana Farms and Dongoyaro Farms was hotly contested but despite all the big names like Isa Dogonyaro, Colonel Y Bello, Hon Ahmed Wadada, and Abdulwahab Sani paraded by the Dogoyaro Farms, the tactical passes between Suleiman Shehu Shema and Hayatu Abba of Sultana Warriors during the final chukker brought the Dongoyaro farms to their knees with a final scores of 6,5 in favour of the Sultana Farms

    The second match between the Iyatu Farms captained by Hon. Ahmed Wadada and NSK Farms was watched by a mammoth crowd looking out to watch the young and very energetic Iyatu polo team all the way from Katsina. At the end of the first chukker, the goal line was 3 goals to NSK polo team and 2 goals to the Iyatu Farms.

  • Buhari, Dogara meet at Aso Rock

    Buhari, Dogara meet at Aso Rock

    The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Tuesday met with President Muhammadu Buhari behind closed door at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The closed door meeting may not be unconnected with moves to resolve the 2016 Budget crisis.

    Due to grey areas in the Buget, the President had withheld his assent since the Budget was passed by the National Assembly.

    But the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, did not attend the closed door meeting that lasted for about 30 minutes.

    Among those at the closed door meeting included the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari; and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang.

    Kyari told journalists that the Speaker could not have spoken to them because there are two leaderships of the two chambers of the National Assembly and that only one of the leaderships visited.

    Enang also declined comment on the issue.

    During the visit, security men attached to the Presidential Villa prevented State House correspondents from getting close to Dogara.

    The security gate by the Council Chambers leading to the President’s office was locked to prevent journalists from reaching Dogara as he headed for his vehicle after the meeting.

  • Dogara: Budget impasse’ll be resolved

    Dogara: Budget impasse’ll be resolved

    House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara has said the impasse over the budget will be resolved.

    Dogara spoke while receiving a delegation of All Progressives Congress (APC) elders and stakeholders from Kwande/Oshongo Federal Constituency of  Benue State in the National Assembly.

    House spokesperson Abdulrazak Namdas, at a news conference with reporters yesterday, confirmed that the House received a letter from the Presidency listing the areas of contention.

    Dogara said: “As we speak to you, I know that the executive has sent their observations on the budget, areas they termed ‘grey areas’. We’ve taken delivery of that document. We are looking into it and in collaboration with the Senate, the entire National Assembly, we have arrived at a decision which I will not announce here because that one is for the ears of Mr President only.

    “It is in the overall national interest; we know that we have to find a solution and sooner than later, within this week, I believe that as leaders, having put on our thinking caps, we should be able to come up with a solution that will address this problem.”

    Namdas declined to reveal the grey areas.

  • Budget: Dogara only saw details last Tuesday

    Budget: Dogara only saw details last Tuesday

    The mysteries surrounding the 2016 budget details appear  inexhaustible after it emerged yesterday that Speaker Yakubu Dogara of the House of Representatives saw the breakdown only last Tuesday, six days after they were submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari  by the National Assembly.

    The figures contained in the budget details sent to the President for him to sign the Appropriation Bill into law are already worsening the delicate relationship between the executive and the legislative arms with indications that Buhari is unwilling to append his signature until amends are made.

    Presidency sources accused the National Assembly of removing entirely or reducing drastically the costs of some of the key projects in the budget proposals.

    It was unclear last night whether the president, who returned from a weeklong visit to China earlier in the day, had decided to return the budget to the National Assembly  to correct what most ministers call mutilation or sign it the way it is and send a supplementary budget later.

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the ministers are said to be awaiting the President’s final decision on the issue although most of the Federal Executive Council members are in favour of the return of the bill to NASS.

    Fresh projects worth about N50billion are the latest hidden votes uncovered by the Executive in the budget details.

    Sources said yesterday that Dogara has had talks with the VP on the confusion.

    A principal officer in the House said: “From the agitation in the National Assembly by members on Wednesday, the row over the budget could have been messier.

    “This is why the Speaker is leading the initiative to review the budget details. Were it not for his maturity, the House would have been thrown into turmoil over the budget.”

    Responding to a question, the source said: “Dogara did not see the budget details until he convened the House leadership meeting on Wednesday. All the principal officers were even asking for the details at our meeting.

    “The Appropriation Committee deliberately shielded the details from the House leadership and members as if the committee were an independent arm of the chamber.

    “Many House members were treated with disdain by the committee. Dogara felt our pains but he applied wisdom to keep the House united.”

    Separate sources said some ministers have discovered that allocations to many projects were either cut or swapped without consultations with relevant committees in the Senate and House of Representatives and members of the Appropriation Committees in the two chambers.

    One such source said: “Some parts of the budget have been mutilated and are not implementable. Some projects were swapped or diverted to areas where they are not needed.

    “We also discovered that votes for a few projects were slashed and allocated to some self-serving demands of some lawmakers. About N50billion worth of projects were inserted into the budget outside the proposals of the Executive and without rubbing minds with the relevant MDAs.

    “From the look of things, only President Muhammadu Buhari can give the final say on whether to ask the National Assembly to review the budget details or to assent to the Appropriation Bill and opt for supplementary budget.”

     

     

  • Protesters tackle Dogara for not swearing in Rep-elect

    Protesters tackle Dogara for not swearing in Rep-elect

    onstituents from Ado/Ogbadibo/Okpokwu  in  Benue State have appealed to House of Representatives  Speaker Yakubu Dogara to exercise fairness and justice in the case of Christian Adabah Abah, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP ) candidate, whose election was upheld by the Appeal Court.

    Despite being declared winner of the House of Representatives election in the constituency by the court, Abah was not among the three lawmakers sworn in on Wednesday by the Speaker.

    Members of a group -Concerned Legal practitioners-  stormed the Red Chambers on Thursday  protesting the treatment meted out to Abah.

    They locked down the National Assembly for several hours  and it took the intervention of security agencies to restore movement in and out of the National Assembly complex.

    The protesters, led by  Dominic Sunday Ochenehi, said the constituents had to resort to protesting to the National Assembly because all entreaties to the Speaker and the Senate President had failed.

    The Speaker however said he would not breach the law by swearing in Abah as the matter is pending before the Supreme Court.

    The protesters were addressed by National Assembly’s Chief Security Officer (CSO)/Sergeant-At-Arm, Ibrahim Ndako on behalf of the Speaker, who pleaded that they should wait for the Supreme Court verdict.

  • Reps angry as Dogara, Jibrin, others inject N40b projects into budget

    Reps angry as Dogara, Jibrin, others inject N40b projects into budget

    The impasse over the 2016 Budget assumed a rowdy dimension in the House of Representatives with members demanding the resignation of the

    Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin.

    They were furious that Jibrin influenced the allocation of projects worth N4.169billion to his constituency outside what was budgeted by the Executive.

    Also, members opposed allocation of N40billion( at N20b apiece) to those in the leadership of both the Senate and the House.

    They specifically faulted the concession of projects of over N3billion to the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara out of the N20billion for the House leadership.

    Amidst shouting match, the lawmakers said the House should do away with past practices of personalising budget.

    It was gathered that  sensing likely protest at the plenary over the budget, the Speaker and his principal officers opted for an Executive session.

    The Executive session began at about 11.30am on a sombre note with the Speaker offering some rapprochement in order to calm down frayed nerves.

    A source at the session said: “After initial courtesies, the Speaker hit the point by claiming that everything being said about the budget remains hearsay because the Executive has not returned the Appropriation Bill.

    “He quickly added a caveat by urging members to avoid anything which could affect the unity of the House.”

    Lending weight to the Speaker’s plea, Hon. Monguno (Borno) urged members to “wait for reactions until the budget is returned.”

    It was gathered that Dogara’s plea fell on deaf ears as members raised issues on the controversy surrounding the budget.

    Some of those who spoke at the session on the budget included Nnana(Imo); Aliyu Sani Madaki( Kano); Prof. Mojeed Alabi(Osun); Douye Diri (Bayelsa) and Comrade Phillip Shuaibu( Edo).

    Jibrin, who rose to defend the budget details, met more than he bargained for.

    A ranking Representative said: “Most members were not persuaded by attempts by Jibrin to incite them against the Executive. They rose up and started shouting at Jibrin for not doing a diligent job.

    “Some asked him whether it was the Executive that asked him to allocate huge projects to his constituency when there was no provision for these in the proposals of the Executive.

    “Many  were yelling and demanding Jibrin’s immediate resignation for the ineffective manner the Appropriation Committee handled the budget.

    “Even when the Speaker called for calm, they shouted that they “cannot defend  the indefensible in the press because Nigerians are angry against the National Assembly for playing politics with the budget.”

    A lawmaker from the South-West said: “At the Executive session, members asked the leadership about the N40billion projects allocated to the principal officers of the Senate and the House. Each of the leadership of the two chambers will share N20billion projects.

    “Members queried why N3billion projects have been allocated to the Speaker and why Jibrin favoured his constituency with N4.169billion projects.”

    “The leadership said the N20b projects were captured under zonal intervention as it had been since 1999 but members said if others were doing it in the past, it should not be now.”

    Some of the projects allocated to Jibrin’s Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency are:

    • N100m for Town Hall
    • Construction of roads in Kiru/Bebeji—N150m
    • Solar street lights—N300m
    • Badaf Road Construction—N405m
    • Pedestrian Bridges —N200m
    • Bebeji Earth Dam—N270m
    • Empowerment items—N100m
    • Entrepreneurship Development Training and Vocational Centre —N100m
    • Rehabilitation of Gwarzo Kiru, Kwanar Maiyaki–N180m
    • Rehabilitation of Sharada-Kwanar Dogara—N1.445billion
    • Construction of solar powered boreholes–N150m
    • Supply of tricycles, grinding machines and set of women salon empowerment kits—N200m
    • Small irrigation scheme ins in Kiru—N100m

    Findings revealed that at the end of the day, Speaker Dogara managed to douse the tension by begging members to sheathe their swords.

  • Osinbajo, Dogara, Fashola others for NBA-SBL conference

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) will give the keynote speech at the 10th Annual Business Law Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL).

    The event, which has as theme: Law and economic reform, will hold from June 22 to 24 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.

    SBL chair Asue Ighodalo, at a briefing in Lagos, said Osinbajo will attend the opening on June 22 and  speak on the theme: Africa Rising – Managing Africa’s economies for the benefit of its peoples

    Also expected are House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara; Dr Kayode Fayemi (Minister of Solid Minerals), Babatunde Fashola (SAN) (Minister of Power, Works and Housing) and a former minister Lanre Babalola. They will chair the sessions.

    “The sessions will focus on laws that directly impact on businesses in Nigeria – with a view to critically examining how certain laws could impede businesses and become disincentives to economic development and how to get better laws for positive growth. To this end, we expect participants to look forward to a number of the key sessions at the conference,” Ighodalo said.

    The sessions have the themes: Law reform and economic development; Managing Nigeria’s economy – Law or institutional reforms?; Vehicles for doing business: Is CAMA fit for a modern growing economy?; Future prospects for the oil industry; Resolving disputes – Is the Arbitration and Conciliation Act still fit for purpose? Should there be an alternative enforcement mechanism to resolve post – award delays?

    Others are: Reforming the Law to promote Commercial Agriculture; Why has Nigeria’s solid minerals Resource not been a source of economic development – what reforms are required?; Power sector reform and economic development; Vision for Nigeria’s infrastructure development – what we need to get there.

    “The SBL continues to promote the delivery of qualitative business services to the public by influencing the advancement of policy, business development and government action. This it does through its collaborations and continuous engagement with regulators, policy makers, professional organisations and the business community.

    “The Annual Business Law Conference is an international convergence of business lawyers, policy makers, regulators, Judges, the business community and academics, which takes place yearly in Nigeria. It seeks to create an environment for business lawyers within and outside Nigeria to network and engage on issues relevant to their fields and to establish a thriving relationship between the business community and government institutions.

    “The conference brings together some of the best policy formulators regulatory, financial, business and legal minds at the yearly event. The conference is structured to bring value to everyone from the public sector, the private sector and even those from the informal sector of the economy. There’s a large offering for a wide range of participants within and outside Nigeria; be it individuals or corporate organisations,” Ighodalo said.