The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Reps

  • Reps urge CBN to withdraw mutilated currency in circulation

    The House of Representatives on Thursday urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to urgently withdraw and destroy mutilated naira notes in circulation.

    The House also charged the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to carry out sustained public enlightenment to educate Nigerians on the need to handle the naira notes with care.

    The resolutions followed a motion by Adekola Alexander (PDP- Ekiti).

    Moving the motion, Alexander said the alarming rate of mutilated currency notes in circulation had become a national embarrassment.

    He added that banks were issuing torn, mutilated and unhygienic currency notes through Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and across the counter.

    “I observe that despite the arrest and subsequent prosecution of the culprits, there is still a cartel in CBN and commercial banks, which make brisk business recycling old naira notes meant for destruction,” the lawmaker said.

    “They enrich their bank accounts, acquiring properties through these illegal proceeds by converting the equivalent of the mutilated notes into their accounts and selling printed mint meant for customers, to touts and hawkers.

    “Section 21(4) of the CBN Act of 2007 makes it a punishable offence for any person to hawk, sell or trade in naira notes, coins or any other issued by the apex bank.”

    Alexander expressed worry that most of the mutilated currency notes in circulation harboured pathogenic micro-organisms which are hazardous to human health.

    The motion was unanimously adopted by members when it was put to a voice vote by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

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  • Presidency, Reps parley to end recession

    Presidency, Reps parley to end recession

    The Presidency on Thursday met with members of the House of Representatives on how to get Nigeria out of recession.

    The closed- door meeting was held in the office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in the State House, Abuja.

    The lawmakers, who are members of the Tactical Committee on Recession, were led by Committee Chairman, Dr. Bode Ayorinde.

    The meeting aimed at promoting cordiality and progressive synergy between the National Assembly and the Presidency, had in attendance the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma.

    The vice president, during the meeting called on political leaders in the country to commit themselves to doing something collectively and individually that can alter the ways things are done in Nigeria for good.

    A statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President, Laolu Akande, said Osinbajo also urged the leaders to use their positions to effect changes that would benefit the citizenry.

    He stressed that leadership was a call to service.

    He said: “How many people will get this kind of opportunity we have to lead? The opportunity to serve is one that must be taken seriously and used for the common good.’’

    On corruption, and its attendant abnormality in matters of development, the vice president said “it is in our interest to deal with corruption, this is not moralising, it is an existential threat, it a survival issue.”

    “`We need to address the fundamentals of that abnormality. If we do not address it, no matter what we say, things won’t work.

    “I think it is very important, especially for us who are in government today either as legislature or executive. We have to address this issue, it is a fundamental issue; everywhere in the world, even where they do not have the problems we have, they are addressing the issue.”

     

  • Reps approve FG’s Eurobond request

    The House of Representatives has approved Federal Government’s request for the issuance of $500 million Eurobond at international capital market to fund the 2016 budget deficit.

    The House in February mandated the Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management headed by Adeyinka Ajayi (APC-Osun), to consider the federal government’s request for additional $500 million Eurobond to be raised through the International Capital Market (ICM) to further finance the 2016 budget.

    The House after the consideration and adoption of the Committee report on Wednesday mandated the Committee to monitor the disbursement of the approved $500 million Eurobond as specified in the 2016 Appropriation Act, to ensure compliance.

    The Committee said in its report that the Eurobond performance has down trend which showed that the investors are showing interest in the Nigerian bond.

    “Therefore the interest rate is falling which implies that Nigeria can get the bond at a better rate. It also indicates that the international community rating of Nigerian economy is high,” it added.

  • Reps to meet minister over resurgence of lassa fever

    The House of Representatives on Tuesday resolved to meet the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, ‎over recent resurgence of Lassa fever in some parts of the country.

    The resolution followed a motion by Sergius Ogun (Edo-PDP) on the need to investigate the resurgence of the fever in Nigeria.

    Ogun said one of the important areas of focus for any government was the health sector.

    This, according to him, is because of its importance to citizens and the dangers that disease and ill-health pose to the safety and security of the populace.

    He expressed concern that in recent times, one of the virulent forms of fever plaguing the nation was Lassa, similar to the Ebola Virus Disease.

    “We are aware that the first case of Lassa fever reported in Nigeria was in 2015 and between August 2015 and May 2016, 273 cases, including 149 deaths were recorded by the World Health Organisation (WHO),” the lawmaker said.

    “We are also aware of a report published on Monday, January 16, 2017 by the Technical Assistant on Communication for the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, urging Nigerians to be at alert.

    “This is because Lassa fever is on the rise again with 19 cases and five deaths reported between 2016 and 2017 in seven states.”

     

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  • Anti-graft war: Reps seek 20-year jail term for looters

    Anti-graft war: Reps seek 20-year jail term for looters

    Despite Senate’s  insistent rejection of the nomination of Ibrahim Magu as the substantive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) last week, the House of Representatives is seeking to make the agency financially and operationally independent of the executive and legislative arms of government.

    The bill seeking to further empower the anti-graft scaled second reading with unanimous support despite a few dissenting voices to a proposal for a special court devoted to the trial of financial and other related crimes. According to two of the four sponsors of the consolidated  bill, Kayode Oladele (APC, Ogun) and  Bassey Ewa (PDP, Cross River), if passed into law, neither the Executive nor the Legislature can turn the anti-graft agency into its tool. Oladele said: “The bill is seeking to expand the scope of those that can head the agency. The extant law restricted it to only former or serving security personnel but we want a situation whereby people of character can be sourced from non-security sector; we don’t want the door to be shut on the rest of brilliant Nigerians with impeccable character. The independence of the agency can only be guaranteed if it is placed on first line charge. If that is done, the agency will no longer have to make do with whatever it was given to it by the Budget office, which may not be enough for its financial activities”. Oladele added that the creation of Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) domiciled in EFCC but independent would go a long way in tackling corruption in the country. “It would enable Nigeria access the international data of the Egmont Group in tackling complex corruption cases with international dimension,” he said.

    On his part, Ewa said the bill is seeking a 20-year minimum jail term for public servants, who corruptly enriched themselves while in office as well as the creation of EFCC court, designed to try corrupt officials to avoid undue delays.

    In his comparative analysis of other countries that have passed through similar circumstances, Ewa said Ghana prescribes 15 years with hard labour, Republic of Cameroun had 20 years imprisonment, and India has 20 years imprisonment while Egypt has 20 years imprisonment.

    On funding of the agency, Ewa said the bill seeks to delete Section 35 of the Act to be replaced with 0.1percent of the total value of contracts awarded by the Federal Government shall be credited to the commission’s account; 0.1percent of the Internally Generated Revenue of the Federal Government shall be credited to the commission’s account; and 0.1percent of the sums of money recovered from the looted funds shall be retained by the commission.

    “The EFCC Act is further amended to establish an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Court to handle all cases emanating from investigations carried out by the EFCC bothering on financial crimes. The court, so established, shall have divisions in the six geo-political zones of the country. The court shall within 180 days dispense with any matter that is properly brought before it as appeals emanating from it shall only lie to the Court of Appeal and the Court of Appeal shall within 90 days dispense with any matter brought before it from the judgment of EFCC Court,” he added.

    While Oladele cautioned his colleagues on the establishment of the EFCC court, a number of his colleagues vehemently opposed it. Oladele opined that the scope of the EFCC court would be too limited which was why he was proposing an all – encompassing Special Court Bill that would take care of variety of financial, terrorism and other related crimes. “There is need for us to bring all the special crimes such as cybercrime, terrorism, financial crimes together into one so that the special court can be fully operational”.

    While he supported operational autonomy for the agency, Oladele however called for caution over funding of the agency, saying if passed into law as proposed; the funding sources might turn out to be over-pampering of the agency. Tajudeen Yusuf (PDP, Kogi) who also supported the EFCC court, said it has become necessary to free the agency from its dependence on the Executive. He however faulted the proposed funding of the agency saying it was too huge.

    However, antagonists of the EFCC got a boost when Speaker Yakubu Dogara pointed out that the position of the constitution should be considered on the feasibility of the EFCC against High courts. While Nicholas Ossai (PDP, Delta) aligned with the Speaker, saying there was a need to examine the position of the constitution, Igariwey  Enwo (PDP, Ebonyi) said, “Mine is only a voice of caution because it is easy to give out powers but very difficult to take it back as this special court may have to serve as subordinate court to the state high courts”. Mohammed Soba (APC, Kaduna) and a number of others said the EFCC court is unnecessary. According to them, the constitution has already empowered the High Court to carry out the proposed duties for the EFCC court. They opined that being a constitutional issue, an amendment of the constitution must be carried out. They said if passed into law, the powers of the High Court would be usurped. They also felt that the creation of the court would also give too much power to the anti-corruption agency.

    But when the bill was put to voice vote, it got the support of the majority of the lawmakers.

  • Reps seek N24b for NIGCOMSAT-2, NIGCOMAT-3 satellites

    THE House of Representatives has urged the Minister of Communications to grant approval to NIGCOMSAT Ltd to source funding for NigComSat-2 and NigComSat-3 communication satellites from development banks, Sovereign Wealth Funds, bilateral and multilateral credit institutions and other financing agencies.

    This followed a motion sponsored by a member OluwoleOke titled: Need for Approval, Appropriation and Disbursement of the N24 billion for the financing and procurement of NIGCOMSAT-2 and NIGCOMAT-3 Satellites.

    The lawmaker, while presenting the motion, said: “In May 2007, NIGCOMSAT Ltd launched its first geostationary satellite, NigComSat-1 into orbit as a result of Solar Array Deployment Assembly (SADA) but NigComSat-1 was de-orbited on November 10, 2008 and was replaced in December 2011 with an improved replica – NigComSat-1R, which has a 15 years minimum lifespan.

    “Notes that NigComSat-1R has played significant roles since its launch into orbit, including astronomical increase in internally generated revenue to numerous downstream clients through the supply of satellite broadband for their services such as the provision of In Orbit Testing (IOT) and Carrier Spectrum Management (CSM) services rendered to the Belarus Government valued at about N1.6 billion annually and the provision of secured satellite communication pathways to our security services and agencies in areas where they cannot deploy wired and wireless services.”

    Oke noted that NigComSat-1R is being deployed in the war against terrorism, secured communication and intelligence gathering, specifically through the provision of encrypted data through its superhighway.

    The motion passed without dissent when the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, called for a voice vote.

  • Reps probe sale of Defence College quarters

    The House of Representatives on Thursday in Abuja mandated its joint committees on Defence and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to investigate the process adopted in the sale of the Defence College quarters in Abuja.

    The House also urged the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to suspend all actions on the sale of properties in Zone C quarters, Apo, Abuja.

    The resolution was sequel to a motion tabled by Tajudeen Obasa (Lagos-APC).

    Moving the motion, Obasa said he was aware that the National Defence College (NDC) quarters located at Zone C, Apo, Abuja, was allocated to the college by the FCTA in 1995.

    He said the allocation is to provide accommodation for military and civilian staff of the College.

    Obasa informed the House that all the 88 blocks in the quarters had been sold by the FCTA to individuals who are currently processing the issuance of Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-O).

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  • Lagos Reps defend proposed takeover of National Stadium

    The House of Representatives is to investigate five years budgetary allocations to the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

    The lawmakers will also interface with the Federal government on the terms and conditions of the stadium takeover by Lagos State government.

    The decision followed the adoption of a motion on the need to investigate the terms and conditions of National Stadium take over by Lagos State Government, presented by Danburam Nuhu (APC, Kano).

    The motion pitched Lagos lawmakers against their colleagues, with the former arguing that the proposed transfer was meant to save the edifice from rotting away due to lack of attention.

    At the end of the debate, the prayer seeking to investigate the takeover was dropped in favour of an interface with the federal government and investigation of the budgetary allocations to the stadium in the last five years.

    Nuhu argued that the stadium has been abandoned for several years, leading to the dilapidation of the edifice.

    He said it took the intervention of the National Sports Commission to renovate and upgrade the facilities to a world class stadium in 2009.

    “In order to keep up with the maintenance of the stadium, a huge budgetary provision is made annually and in 2016, for instance the sum of N400 million was appropriated for the purpose.

    “Being one of the critical assets of the country, there is a need to ensure that favourable terms/conditions are provided before the transfer of the stadium to Lagos State Government,” he said.

    However, Lagos lawmakers led by Abiodun Faleke said there was no need for the investigation of the takeover that has not taken place.

    On his part, Rotimi Agunsoye wondered why the case of the National Stadium is generating such emotion while other stadia were taken over in the past without controversies.

     

  • Reps to probe irregularities in FG’s social intervention schemes

    The House of Representatives on Wednesday resolved to investigate alleged irregularities in the management of Federal Government’s social intervention programmes.

    It therefore mandated its Committee on Appropriation and Poverty Alleviation to investigate the Ministries of Finance, and Budget and National Planning to ascertain the method of identification and selection of beneficiaries of the scheme.

    The resolution followed the adoption of a motion presented by Mark Gbillah (Benue-APC).

    The Committees are to report their findings to the House within four weeks.

    Moving the motion earlier, Gbillah stressed the need to prevent the social intervention schemes from being politicised, adding that the recipients should be ascertained.

    According to him, proper identification and selection of targeted vulnerable Nigerians should be done.

    The federal government had, as one of its cardinal policy initiatives, introduced four schemes for various segments of the society.

    The schemes are – Home-Grown School Feeding Programme and the N-Power programme which targets to train and equip youths as teachers and agricultural and health workers on a monthly stipend of N30, 000 for graduates among them.

    Others are N5, 000 monthly Conditional Cash Transfer to one million Nigerians, and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), a loan scheme of between N10, 000 and N100, 000 for artisans, market women, small businesses and unemployed youths.

    Gbillah queried the effectiveness of the methodology and criteria employed in identifying and selecting the beneficiaries.

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  • Reps to take inventory of items seized by EFCC

    The House of Representatives on Tuesday resolved to take inventory of assets seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) so as to ascertain their conditions and current values.

    The resolution was sequel to a motion presented by Benson Babajimi (Lagos-APC) on Tuesday in Abuja.

    The motion is entitled: “Need to ascertain the dumps and take an inventory of the forfeited assets in possession of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC).”

    While moving the motion, Babajimi noted that “pursuant to Section 20(1) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Establishment Act 2004, a person convicted of an offence shall forfeit to the Federal Government, all the assets and properties which may or are the subject of interim order of the court.”

    He also reminded the lawmakers that Section 26 of the Act provided that the commission might seize any property subject to forfeiture after an attachment of such property.

    According to him, acting under these provisions, the EFCC, since its establishment in 2003, had seized several movable and immovable properties and assets under interim orders of courts.

    “Also, be aware that the EFCC maintains dump sites in various parts of the country, where it keeps the movable assets while immovable assets are sealed off.

    “Many of these assets have been there for several years while some are already at various stages of decay.

    “I am convinced of the need to avoid this needless waste of recovered properties which would otherwise have yielded some much needed revenues to the national treasury,’’ Babajimi said.

    The House later mandated its Committee on Financial Crimes to carry out an audit of car dumps and inventory of other movable and immovable assets seized by the EFCC to ascertain their conditions and current values.

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