The Governorship election tribunal sitting in Delta state has upheld the election of Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The tribunal also dismissed petition filed by the Labour Party and its governorship candidate, Chief Great Ogboru.
Details later…
The National Economic Council (NEC) meeting on Thursday approved the reimbursement of N535.5 billion to states for the expenses incurred on Federal roads.
Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
He was accompanied to the briefing by governors Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Samuel Ortom (Benue) and Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta).
Ajimobi said: “Another issue discussed is on refund of expenses incurred on repair of federal roads by states. As listed here, we have 13 states that have fully complied with the reimbursements requirements, we have eight states that have partially complied, 21 states without compliance and the total sum of claims to be reimbursed is exactly 535, 596, 386, in other words, N535.5 billion.”
[ad id=”403656”]He said N13 billion has been disbursed to states as at 2013 and that the challenges faced had to do with inadequate funding in the ministry.
He also disclosed that 26 state governments have applied for restructuring of their bank loans amounting to N500 billion.
While 11 of the states have concluded and submitted all relevant documents, he disclosed that 13 states are involved in the second phase that will commence soon.
He added: “The other major item that was discussed had to do with the restructuring of bank loans to state governments, and the restructuring was done into Federal Government bonds and the DG of DMO reported as follows: That 26 states applied for the loans, 11 states have concluded and submitted all relevant documents and 13 states are involved in the second phase to commence immediately. The total money involved in the restructuring stood at over N500 billion.”
Sen. Ifeanyi Okowa ( PDP- Delta North) said on Monday that it would be difficult for the National Assembly to legislate on the proposed special media salary in the country.
Okowa said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He said that with the private nature of the ownership of most media houses, it would be difficult for the National Assembly to enact an Act that could compel the private media owners to pay a uniform salary scale for all media workers.
“The media is actually being run more by the private sector, so it becomes difficult for us to have a special salary scale for them because it is not actually a government entity.
“The government can only provide for a minimum living wage which everybody must keep to and we hope too that the media houses and everybody is keeping to that.
“But enacting laws that will force special sections of the media to actually pay special salary scale will be difficult. “
He, however, called on the various media unions to collaborate with the Ministry of Information to fashion out better remuneration for media workers in the country.
He said the media was a special sector in the economy that required attention in terms of welfare.
“I believe that you have unions, you have associations. They should be able to put some pressure on owners of media houses to actually pay better.
“I hope that somewhere along the line it is possible to work with the Ministry of Information and see what they can do about it. “
He noted that the media played very important role in every democratic dispensation and should be encouraged.