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Tag: Senate President Bukola Saraki

  • nPDP did denies demanding for Saraki’s trial stoppage

    Members of the  defunct New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) yesterday denied demanding for the stoppage of Senate President Bukola Saraki’s trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) during their meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

    Chair of the group Alhaji Abubakar Baraje clarified in a statement issued in Ilorin, Kwara state, describing the report as ‘blasphemy and flagrant lie. ‘

    Baraje disclosed that “nothing of that nature was part of the issues raised or discussed at the meeting the group held on Monday with the Vice President at the Presidential Villa , Abuja”.

    He emphasised that “there was no mention of anybody’s case talk less of the Senate President, Dr Saraki at the said meeting .

    “I want to warn that if this is the way we want to handle the issue by creating bad blood against our group , through the media, it will not augur well for them and we are therefore warning that blasphemy and arrant lies cannot resolve the matter  at hand.

    “I want to also disclose that at the last meeting,  the Vice President requested and appealed to us that we should all keep our mouth shut until we reach the final stuck , that’s why we are  not talking  to the press.

    “If the media houses concerned do not stop this blasphemy, particularly, The Nation Newspaper , this issue will be very difficult to solve and the group or myself as a person is ready to take any news media to court for blasphemy”.

    Alhaji Baraje also described as untrue  an online publication which claimed that he is occupying a juicy position at a parastatal, declaring that he had never occupied any position in any board under the present administration.

    “I have been existing and living in accordance with my own legal means for the past three years and I’m not complaining. The complaint we are raising is that all the issues we raised when we left PDP are now resurfacing, particularly lack of of respect for the rule of law , and that there is total anarchy; that the government does things as it likes against anybody which was happening in PDP when we left.”

    Also read : Ramadan: Atiku urges Muslims to pray for Nigeria’s unity

    Baraje  explained that the group was not fighting for its members or for the selfish interest of some individuals among them but rather for members of the public, warning people against turning their agitation to a personal fight but that of the Nigerian masses.

    “For the avoidance of doubt, our group is fighting for good governance and we are against anarchy and  arrogance. We are  are also concerned about the poor state of our economy where an average Nigerian is hungry and government seems to be doing nothing and we are also fighting against insecurity where lives and property of Nigerians are in jeopardy.

    “But if a section of the media is trying to make it (our struggle)  personal and want to see it as if we are fighting for our own sake, it will not augur well for the peace of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

  • Saraki pays N4m salary arrears of Kwara traditional rulers

    Senate President Bukola Saraki Monday cleared the 20 months’ salary arrears owed some categories of traditional chiefs in Kwara central senatorial district.

    The affected local government areas; Ilorin East, Ilorin South and Asa could not meet their financial obligations to the monarchs because of the drastic shortfalls in their allocation from the federation account.

    The 220 affected traditional chiefs received a total sum of N49, 438,000.00. The beneficiaries received their salary arrears at a brief ceremony at the ABS Constituency Office in Ilorin, the state capital Monday.

    Addressing the district heads, the Director- General, ABS constituency office, Alhaji Musa Abdullahi said the senate president undertook the payment in order to provide succour for the district heads.

    He said Saraki who was concerned by the plight of the communities heads had earlier set up a committee to look into the issue and acted promptly on the committee’s recommendation ‎to pay the 20 months’ salary arrears to the monarchs.

    Abdullahi who noted the district heads are the eye of the community advised them to continue to support the Senate President to enable him attract more dividends of democracy to the state.

    Releasing the stipends to the monarchs, the Chairman of Advisory Council of the ABS Constituency Office, Alh AbdulRaheem Olesin, said the Senate President decided to offset the arrears to alleviate the sufferings of the traditional rulers.

    According to him, about N49, 438,000 was paid to all the 220 affected traditional rulers in the Ilorin East, South and Asa Local Government Areas.

    He said as the custodian of customs and heritage, the Senate President held the traditional institution in high esteem and decided to pay the arrears of salaries to bring succour to the beneficiaries.

    Responding on behalf of the traditional rulers in Ilorin East, the Alangua Ibagun, Alhaji Jimoh Alabi, said they were elated with the gesture of the Senate President, saying  that this would reduce their sufferings drastically.

    Also speaking on behalf of traditional rulers from Ilorin South, the Magaji Mosudo, Alhaji Saliu Mohammed said after the meeting of the Forum of Magajis and Alanguas, the Emir of Ilorin demanded for their list and promised to talk to the Senate President on the payment of their salary arrears.

    According to him, he was surprised with the step taken by Saraki, saying that majority of them had lost hope on the payment of the salary arrears.

    Read Also: Saraki faults Lai Mohammed on tagging of Senators as looters

     

  • Senate, Reps agree to move NFIU to CBN

    Senate, Reps agree to move NFIU to CBN

    The Senate and House of Representative conference committee have agreed to domicile the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), it was learnt Tuesday.

    This is coming as the Senate has scheduled today (Wednesday) consider and adopt the report of the Conference Committee on NFIU Bill.

    The NFIU is currently domiciled in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC.)

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator Chukwuka Utazi submitted the conference committee’s report to the Senate yesterday.

    The Bill seeks to grant financial and operational autonomy to the NFIU, which is currently domiciled in the EFCC.

    Findings showed that the conference committee adopted the recommendation of the Senate, which removed the NFIU from the anti-graft agency and domiciled it in the CBN.

    The House position which was jettisoned by the conference was that the NFIU should continue to be domiciled in EFCC.

    The Egmont group, a global network of 154 Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), had suspended Nigeria at its last general meeting in July 2017.

    The FIU threatened to expel the country if the Unit was not given autonomy by its next meeting holding on March 11, 2018.

    If expelled, the country will suffer a blacklist in the global finance sector and Nigerian Banks will be unable to issue Mastercard and Visa credit/debit cards while card transactions with Nigerian originated cards will be blocked. This means Nigerians will be unable to carry out foreign transactions.

    Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over plenary, said that the Bill will be considered today.

    Ekweremadu commended Utazi and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Kayode Oladele, for putting aside their differences and presenting a harmonised report.

    He said that the Bill will be passed and signed into law before the group’s meeting this weekend.

    Only last week, Utazi accused his counterpart in the House of attempting to derail the process of having a legal framework that would guarantee independence of the NFIU.

    Oladele fired back and insisted that Utazi was behind the delay in the passing of the Bill.

    A meeting between Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, mandated the two lawmakers to meet and conclude work on the conference report.

    The joint committee met on Monday, where the two versions of the report were harmonised.

    Read Also: Senate, Reps bicker over NFIU bill

  • Saraki names conference committee on electoral reforms Bill

    Saraki names conference committee on electoral reforms Bill

    Senate President Bukola Saraki yesterday announced a six-man  committee of senators to reconcile the Senate’s version of the amended Electoral Act with the version passed by the House of Representatives.

    The Senate’s conference committee has the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Senator Suleiman Nazif, as Chairman.

    Other members of the committee are Senators Shehu Sani, Biodun Olujimi, Hope Uzodinma, Dino Melaye and Peter Nwaoboshi.

    The committee is expected to meet with the House of Representatives to harmonise the version of the amended electoral bill before being sent to  President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent.

    The Senate had in 2017 passed an amended version of the 2010 Electoral Act.

    While the  House of Representatives Tuesday amended the Electoral Act to change the order of 2019 general elections’ time table. This came barely a month after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released the time-table for the general elections.

    With the amendment, the National Assembly election is to hold first, followed by gubernatorial and state assembly polls and presidential election to be conducted last.

  • Kwara multi-billion centre to be centre of excellence

    Kwara multi-billion centre to be centre of excellence

    The Kwara State-owned Harmony Diagnostic Centre (HADC) is poised to be centre of excellence in the Northcentral in the next two years.

    Established in 2013, the centre began operations in 2014 and since then it has positioned itself as one of the leading diagnostic centres in Kwara, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo Kogi, Benue and Niger states.

    HADC’s mission statement is ‘to ensure the consistent provision of comprehensive diagnostic and allied healthcare services. To remain a centre of excellence for high quality services for all’.

    Acting Managing Director  Dr Bunmi Jetawo-Winters, a trained pharmacist said despite the centre’s sophistication in terms of equipment and personnel, Nigeria still lags behind in that respect.

    She added that “we do not have enough diagnostic centres in Nigeria. We also have few laboratories that carry out expansive tests in the country, considering Nigeria’s population. That is not too good.”

    Dr Jetawo-Winters, who doubles as the Director General, Kwara State Hospitals Management Bureau, said that the centre is not out to carry empirical treatment on patients, but rather it does investigations on patients to get to the proper target of the problems.

    She added that HADC is interfacing with teaching hospitals in the state and neighbouring states, saying that “we have highly sophisticated equipment not readily available in other states of the federation.”

    The diagnostic centre is not without some challenges, she insisted.

    “We have multi-faceted problems. Just like in any other part of the country, power supply is one of the problems. No enough biomedical engineers. There is a big gap in that respect. We need a lot more training for available bio-medical engineers. Universities in the country should be encouraged to identify the gap,” she said.

    Dr Jetawo-Winters said the centre is a work in progress, putting the performance of the four years old centre at 75 percent.

    “We are expanding our services so that we can be centre of excellence in the nation,” she said, noting that “we want to partner with local and international partners.”

    The managing director debunked the claim that Senate President Bukola Saraki and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed have majority shares in the centre.

    She said:”The centre is 100 percent and wholly owned by the Kwara state government, but it is being run like a private concern.”

    She said the centre has imaging and laboratory sections.

    The professional pharmacist hailed the Federal Government for setting aside 22 percent for the health sector in the 2018 budget estimate.

    “It is a major improvement from the past. It is a step in the right direction,” she added, advocating for between 35 and 40 percent for the sector in subsequent budgets.

    She also enjoined government at all levels to encourage and promote the health sector for the wellness and well-being of the society.

    She urged Nigerians to ensure balanced diet as according to her “diet is essential to good health. We need to have a balanced of all food groups.”

    Conducting reporters round the laboratory section, the Laboratory, Manager Chukwukelu Jason said the state government had invested multi-billion naira in the centre.

    Mr. Jason encouraged Nigerians to carry out annual general medical check-up of the system, adding that the lab department also comprises of different section.

    He revealed that their operation is not posing any danger to the environment, saying that “we incinerate waste products at high temperature before disposing them off.”

    His counterpart at the imaging department, Dr Oyinloye Gregory, said most of the equipment in his section are unique and rarely in use in many parts of the country.

  • Dangote, Otedola, others converge on Abuja for Dogara @ 50

    Dangote, Otedola, others converge on Abuja for Dogara @ 50

    The busy roads of Abuja parted like the Red Sea last Sunday as the blue blood of high society converged on the capital city for the beginning of the golden jubilee celebration of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Dogara.

    The spectacle of a hundred thunderclaps would hardly compare to the majesty on display as power brokers vied with dons and doyens of the private sector for bragging rights in a novelty football match that kicked off the birthday festivities. It was a sight to behold as deities among men huffed, puffed and whooped like mere mortals, while other deep-pocket spectators momentarily lost their heads to the rush of the occasion.

    On hand to chair the august event was the Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, ably assisted by the likes of Forte Oil boss Femi Otedola, Sam Iwuajoku and Oscar Onyema. Also in attendance were Senate President Bukola Saraki and Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal, among others. The proceeds of the novelty match will be channelled into helping internally displaced persons in the Northeast.

  • SGF seeks better executive, legislative cooperation

    SGF seeks better executive, legislative cooperation

    •Mustapha visits Saraki, Dogara

    SECRETARY to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha yesterday assured Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara of the full cooperation of the Presidency with the National Assembly.

    Mustapha, who visited Saraki and Dogara at the National Assembly, told them that he came to extend hand of friendship and to solicit the support and cooperation of the National Assembly to ensure the smooth running of government.

    The SGF noted that the Presidency was not in competition with the National Assembly, especially when it was realised that the duties of the two arms of government are specified in the constitution.

    He said the two arms of government are joint partners in governmental enterprise and should work to complement each other.

    Saraki described the visit of the SGF as a new phase of cooperation between the Executive and the Legislature.

    He said: “Let me on behalf of my colleagues welcome you to the Senate and let me thank you for your visit.

    “I think your visit is very symbolic. It is truly a new phase of cooperation between the Executive and the Legislature and a good omen  for our democracy and for our government.”

    Dogara stated that contrary to beliefs in some quarters, the Legislature and the Executive are not rivals but partners in progress.

    He described the appointment of Mustapha as “a round peg in a round hole, or a square peg in a square hole”, and stated that the president “hit the nail on the head”.

  • Legislative, Executive will cooperate for good governance – Saraki

    Legislative, Executive will cooperate for good governance – Saraki

    Senate President Bukola Saraki on Tuesday pledged the cooperation of the National Assembly with the executive to ensure better administration of the country.

    Saraki gave the indication when he fielded questions from State House Correspondents after an interactive dinner hosted by President Muhammadu Buhari in honour of principal officers of the National Assembly in Abuja.

    According to him, the event is not just a meeting but to honour the invitation of the President to the National Assembly officers to interact with him since he returned from medical vacation.

    “As you know, since he got back we have not really had an opportunity to meet with him as part of the stakeholders,’’ he said.

    The Senate President added that this was the first time for such interaction with the leadership of the National Assembly.

    “The meeting was to welcome him to show our gratitude that he has come back healthy and continue to assure him that we will continue to cooperate with the executive and also to acknowledge the role we played while he was away that brought stability.

    “We thank all the members for the patriotic approach they handled the administration’s affairs in his absence,’’ he said.

    On the 2018 appropriation bill, Saraki stated that its presentation lay in the hands of the executive but “we will receive it when they are ready.’’

    He said both the National Assembly and the executive would work together to ensure the passage of the bill in December.(NAN)

  • Sahara Reporters v Saraki: Court declines contempt hearing

    Sahara Reporters v Saraki: Court declines contempt hearing

    An Ilorin, Kwara state High Court Thursday declined to entertain application filed by Senate President Bukola Saraki against the Publisher of online newspapers, Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore.

    The judge, Justice Sikiru Oyinloye therefore referred the application to the Chief Registrar of the state Ministry of Justice for re-assignment.

    The same court had in May this year awarded N4 billion against Mr. Sowore for defaming the character of Senator Saraki.

    But, Mr. Sowore (defendant) approached the court praying for stay of execution of the judgement.

    While, the case subsists in court, Senator Saraki through his lawyer, Babatunde Olomu accused the Sahara Reporters publisher of scandalous publications against the court.

    In a motion of notice dated September 11th, 2017, Mr Olomu sought for “an order for Omoyele (2nd respondent) to appear in court in person and show cause why he should not be committed for contempt of court in respect of publications made scandalizing this court; an order refusing audience to the defendant/respondent in respect of their pending applications before the court until they purge themselves of the said contempt.”

    Saraki counsel based his application on “the provision of order 47 of the Kwara state High Court (civil procedure) rules 2005, empowers this court to punish a person for contempt of court by an order for committal; the 2nd defendant had published on several platforms on the World Wide Web, contemptuous and derogatory remarks of this honourable court and the person of the presiding judge, calculated to scandalize the court.”

    In his ruling, Justice Oyinloye said “I do not want to be a judge in my own court. I hereby direct counsel to Senator Saraki to redirect the contempt application to the registry for reassignment.”
    In his oral application after the ruling, Olomu urged the court to give his application over and above the remaining applications of the defendants.

    He prayed the court to “stay further proceedings on other applications pending the outcome of the reassignment of the contempt application by the registry.

    Counsel to Sowore, Stanley Imhauaor said the oral application was strange and improper, saying it was an indirect way of arguing the application just referred to the registry for reassignment.

    Said he: “The oral application is an attempt to ambush the decision of the application referred to the registry; his application is not proper. This is a very serious application with very serious business.

    This court ought not to have entertained this oral application. “Courts are enjoined not to speculate on issues that are not before them. Contempt is quasi criminal in nature. We urge you to discountenance the application.”

    In his ruling, Justice Oyinloye said that “I cannot entertain any further proceedings on this matter until the application for contempt of court I referred to the registry is resolve.

    “I therefore fixed 24th of November, 2017 for report on the progress made. I also direct the registrar of this court to make sure the application is expeditiously attended to in the next two Weeks at the registry.”

  • 2017 Budget: Senate summons Adeosun, Udoma

    2017 Budget: Senate summons Adeosun, Udoma

    The Senate has asked the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun and  Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma to appear before its Joint Committee on Finance and Appropriation on Tuesday, Oct. 3.

    The Senate, which had on September 26, asked the ministers to appear before it in plenary to brief it on the level of implementation of the 2017 Budget, changed its decision on Thursday.

    The decision followed a point of order raised by the Leader of the Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan.

    The lawmakers adopted the new position following a voice vote.

    Lawan in his point-of-order appealed to his colleagues to allow the committees interface with the minister for a more robust discussion.

    According to him, some of his colleagues advised that there would be more room for the ministers to discuss the state of the economy at the committee level.

    In his remarks, Senate President Bukola Saraki urged the Clerk of the National Assembly to communicate the position of the Senate to the ministers.

    The upper chamber had summoned Adeosun and Udoma to appear before it to offer explanations on the state of the economy.

    The invitation followed a report that the country had come out of recession, and also the level of implementation of 2017 budget.