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Tag: Senate

  • I was not employed to wear uniform – Customs chief

    I was not employed to wear uniform – Customs chief

    In an apparent response to Senate’s directive, the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (retd), declared on Friday that he was not employed to wear uniform.

    Ali told TVC that rather he was appointed to work effectively.

    The Senate had ordered him to appear before it on March 15 in his official uniform as a customs officer.

    He was summoned by the senators over the Customs’ new order, asking all old vehicles to pay customs duty.

    Customs offered a 60 per cent rebate for vehicles from 2015 below.

    He said: “No! I was not appointed Comptroller General of Customs to wear uniform.

    “Does uniform work or the person behind the uniform?”

    On the criticism of the Customs for the recent invasion of the Sango Ota motor park in Ogun State where thousands of bags of rice were carted away on the allegation that they were smuggled, Ali said: “If we suspect that smuggled items are taken into your house, we have the right to cordon that house and go in to search.

    “Am I doing my job or not? I think that should be what should worry the National Assembly.”

  • Customs chief must appear before us in uniform – Senate

    The Senate on Thursday mandated the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (retd), to appear in plenary in appropriate uniform on March 15, to address the issue of Customs tax duties on vehicles.

    This followed a Point of Order raised by Senator Dino Melaye on a publication in Daily Sun newspaper of March 9, which reads: “Customs dares Senate, says no going back on implementation of duties on old vehicles.”

    The Senate had recently directed the Customs to stop the proposed plan to punish anyone that fail to pay duties on vehicles within a month of bringing them into the country.

    The resolution followed a motion by Deputy Majority Leader, Senator Bala Na’Allah, who described the new policy as a serious matter.

    According to Melaye, the most important arm of government is the legislature and the Nigeria Customs cannot function without the National Assembly.

    “The customs cannot spend or survive without appropriation and oversight.

    “And if this Senate will take a resolution and an agency of government will have the guts and the strength to disregard the institution of the senate, it is not good for democracy,” he said.

    Melaye said government existed to serve the people and not the people in government, adding that if the “Senate had taken a position in the interest of Nigerians and an institution of government would disrespect the Senate, it is unacceptable.”

    “I hope this was a misrepresentation that they did not take that position.

    “This comment can only be made in a military government, where an individual, a parastatal or an institution of government will confront the power of the Senate.”

    NAN

  • Senate summons Customs boss

    Senate summons Customs boss

    The Senate on Thursday  summoned Customs Comptroller  General, Col. Hammed Ali over flouting of its order on payment of duty on old vehicles.

    Col. Ali is to appear before the senate wearing Customs uniform on Wednesday, March 15th

  • Senate panel seeks subsidy removal, price deregulation

    Senate panel seeks subsidy removal, price deregulation

    How can the  domstream oil sector be sanitised? It is by the removal of subsidy and total deregulation of fuel price says the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream).

    According to the committee’s chairman, Senator Marafa Kabir Garba, the refineries are not working because some people are making a killing from subsidy.

    Subsidy retention he said, would lead to job losses and also inhibit the building of indigenous capacity and expertise.

    Garba told The Nation that the sector  would grow when the twin problems of  subsidy and non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) were solved.

    He said: “What the downstream requires is total deregulation and the passage of the PIB that is under consideration at the moment. We are currently considering the governance aspect of the PIB, which will deal with the regulatory aspect of the oil industry. We intend to make it like a one-stop shop where investors can have  easy access to the industry without the multiplicity of bodies that regulate the sector.

    “We will strengthen the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and make it stronger, such that investors will walk in and go out from there with all they require as far as the petroleum industry is concerned.

    “The laws governing the oil industry are old and archaic. These contributed to the failure of a lot of things that pertain to the industry. That informed the decision of the government to introduce the PIB, but after several Assemblies of the National Assembly, the bill has never seen the light of the day. Discussions, deliberations go on for four years without success. But this National Assembly said it is determined to do it. We are giving it a different approach, we have broken it into parts – the Governance, Fiscals and Community/Socials. The Governance Bill will see the light of  day in the next few weeks, either at end of this month or early next month (April). From there, we will go to the fiscals that relate to monetary aspect of the industry, and from there, we go to the community and social issues.

    “As far as the Senate is concerned, we are doing everything possible under the leadership of Senate President Bukola Saraki, who took it upon himself and promised Nigerians that this time around the bill will be passed. Once that is done, the downstream sector will have a breathe of life.”

    On passage of the three parts of the PIB, Marafa said: “We will be able to pass the three parts of the bill before end of the year God willing. The Fiscal aspect has gone through the first reading, so it is coming up for second reading and if that is done, in the next three to four months, that aspect will be passed. Before we pass the Fiscal aspect of the bill, the community aspect would have gone through the first reading. We will give it all the necessary attention it requires.”

    On the resistance to removal of subsidy and total deregulation of the downstream by labour and civil society groups, Marafa said as a nation, we had to make deliberate and precious decision on what we intend to achieve, adding that just a few days ago, the Senate ordered investigation into the subsidy matter again.

    He said: “The the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) alone collected over N5 trillion on subsidies from 2006 to 2015. The labour and civil society, among others, should come and let all stakeholders reason together on what fuel subsidy is all about. What value do Nigerians get from the subsidy compared to the amount of money that goes into it? If you combine the subsidy collected by NNPC with that of major and independent marketers, among others, it totals about N9 trillion in a scope 10 years, which is over and above our national budget.’’

    He continued: “Does the common man really get the right value from subsidy? If such huge funds were sunk into other sectors such as health, agriculture, roads, railway systems, would it not have benefitted the common man more? It would be better and with more value addition. The labour will always fight for increased salary for workers but where is the money? Subsidy on diesel aspect of petroleum products was removed and heaven didn’t fall.

    “Also, it is regulation that is keeping our refineries from working because people are feeding fat from subsidy. The same issue applies to the power sector, as long as people continue to import and Nigerians continue to buy generators, it will be difficult for the power sector to work. If you check the cost of the number of generators we buy in Nigeria, it is enough to generate enough electricity for the country. But because we as a people are sentimental about full deregulation of the downstream, we continue to lose by exporting value and jobs through export of our crude oil, import and subsidy of refined petroleum.”

  • PDP Senate Caucus rejects Sheriff’s invitation

    PDP Senate Caucus rejects Sheriff’s invitation

    The Senate Caucus of the  Peoples Democratic Party(PDP),  on Wednesday in Abuja, turned down an invitation extended to it by Sen. Modu Sheriff and opted for wider consultation in resolving the leadership tussle in the party.

    The Chairman of the caucus, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, made this known while addressing journalists shortly after a closed-door meeting of the caucus.

    Akpabio, who is also the Senate Minority Leader, said Sheriff had extended a letter, dated March 6 to the caucus for a meeting.

    He assured that the caucus would continue to push for an out of court settlement regarding the current leadership tussle in the party.

    He, however, said the meeting of all major stakeholders would be a better option.

    “We held this meeting because there was a letter from Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff to the caucus and we had to meet first to know whether this is the right time.

    “Whether the meeting is right or not, what we agreed is that the leadership meets first and thereafter we meet with the Sheriff group, the Makarfi group and the BOT.

    “When this happens, we will then see whether all can come to a consensus and not just the caucus running to the party office to meet Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff. That will look like sectionalism.

    “As a caucus, we believe strongly in peace and we believe in the unity of the Peoples Democratic Party so that Nigeria can have a robust democracy.

    “We believe that without the PDP being strong and united, Nigeria may slide into a one party state and democracy may be in peril,’’ he said.

    According to him, for the party to succeed with any alternative to court processes, it is pertinent to meet all major stakeholders, including governors and National Caretaker Committee.

    He stressed the need for the stakeholders in PDP to spearhead a major political turnaround that would bring lasting peace to the party.

    “If we succeed in doing so, it could even be a major way out, instead of continuous processes in court.

    “We will pursue that option without prejudice to the ongoing court processes.’’

    The chairman said the caucus also discussed about the overall well-being of the nation, prayed and wished President Muhammadu Buhari quick recovery and quick return to the country.’’

    On the recent defection of some PDP Senators to APC, Akpabio said it did not affect the strength of the party in the Upper Chamber.

    According to him, the claims that PDP representation in Senate is threatened, is unfounded.

    “I don’t see any `defection’ happening, I only see interest playing out.

    “PDP in the Senate is still very strong and very robust. We started with 49 Senators and we are still well over 40, we are still going to get more.

    “So, how can you say defection of two or three Senators who have interest outside the chambers will affect the unity and strength of the caucus.

    He urged Nigerians to ignore the insinuation, adding that local circumstances rather than wrangling in the party was responsible for the defection.

    He said, “Even if there were no wrangling in PDP, there will still be defections.

    “If you assess your chances of a re-election in 2019 in your locality and you see that a would-be opponent is five times your size, you have to look for alternative platform.

    ‘’This is ensure that you don’t lose out in 2019.

    “So, anything that has to do with the strength of the PDP dwindling is propaganda.”

    Akpabio assured PDP supporters across the nation that the party was still vibrant.

    He further said that leadership tussle did not in any way diminish the strength of the party across the country.

    He also said that it was only PDP that would assist the All Progressives Congress (APC) in deepening democracy. (NAN)

  • Xenophobia: Senate withdraws from South Africa trip

    The Senate has cancelled its planned trip to South Africa over recent xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in that country.

    Deputy President of the Senate, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over Wednesday’s plenary, announced the cancellation of the trip ‎after about 30 minutes closed-door session of the upper chamber.

    He said the lawmakers reached the decision to withdraw from the trip following the insistence of the House of Representatives to send separate delegation to South Africa.

    Ekweremadu said attempts by the Senate to prevail on the Reps to allow a single National Assembly delegation for the trip were rejected by the lower chamber.

    “On our trip to South Africa to engage our colleagues in their parliament regarding xenophobia, we noted that the House Representatives insisted on going to South Africa independently,” he said.

    “We thought we could send a single delegation of the National Assembly to avoid the unnecessary embarrassment of multiple delegations.

    “In the circumstance, the Senate decided to pull out of the trip and allow the delegation of the House of Representatives to proceed. We wish them safe trip and good luck.”

    NAN

     

     

  • Customs shuns Senate to seek 40 percent vehicle duty

    Customs shuns Senate to seek 40 percent vehicle duty

    ….directs owners to pay at Area Commands

     

    Despite the Senate directive that the Nigeria Customs Service should suspend the proposed vehicle duty ultimatum that is due to be effective on April 12, the organization Wednesday said that it was granting 60% rebate on the Duty Paid Value (DPV) on vehicles before and in 2015.

    Addressing journalists at the Customs Headquarters, Abuja Wednesday, the Acting Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr. Joseph Attah, said the grace period began on Monday and would last till Wednesday April 12, 2017 for vehicle owners and dealers to pay at the nearest Customs Area Commands except for Lagos and Port Harcourt.

    The spokesman said “Visit any Customs command near you and verify your papers and know if the right duty was paid. Ignorance is no excuse. There is a one-month grace period for now with 60 per cent rebate.”

    He insisted that “soon, owners of smuggled vehicles without duty will longer be able to register them or renew their vehicle papers.”

    The Senate on Tuesday directed the NCS to suspend the directive until a proper explanation by the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd).

    But Reacting, Mr. Attah said the Service will provide adequate information to explain the objective to the National Assembly.

    He said that “Senators are respected representatives of the people. When we visit them, we shall discuss and I’m confident that with the gains in this action, they’ll see reasons.”

    According to him, the need to complex all vehicle owners to pay duty is boost revenue and enhance national security through the Vehicles Identification Number (VIN) Project.

    It has the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Federal road Safety Commission (FRSC), Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO), and Nigeria Police Force (NPF) as partners.

    His words: “The benefit of this collaboration is that those who do not pay Duty on their vehicles will not be able to obtain and register them in Nigeria. We believe that when all vehicles are properly registered and owners’ identities tied to them, national Security will be enhanced.”

    With the rebate, Customs said payment for 2015 vehicles and below that were directly imported and third party type (Nigerian used) is based on 35 per cent of the actual value as Duty from which the owners will be mandated to now pay 40 per cent.

    The National President of Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria (AMDON), Prince Ajibola Adedoyin at the briefing said they supported Customs on the directive as they had meetings before it was issued. AMDON said it will soon activate an online platform where customers can verify vehicles with genuine Duty payment.

    On the one month period, Adedoyin said as it continues, the association will call for further review or extension of the grace period when the need arises.

    He said the Customs management may extend the deadline depending on compliance.

    Adedoyin said body was developing a platform through which customers could ascertain the genuineness of their vehicles Customs papers.

    “When you buy a car from us, something will be issued to you to avoid buying vehicles without duty. We’ve a listening CGC, as we continue with Customs on the new policy, if there’s need to extend the one month window, we will. It’s agonizing to buy a vehicle without duty and have it seized”, he said.

  • Senator Omo Agege defects to APC

    Senator Omo Agege defects to APC

    Senator Ovie Omo Agege the only Labour Party (LP) Senator in the Senate has defected to All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The Senator represents Delta Central Senatorial district.

     

  • Senate uncovers N10tr petroleum industry fraud

    •NNPC, independent marketers implicated

    The Senate said at the weekend it discovered a N10 trillion fraud allegedly perpetrated by officials of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) between 2006 and last year.

    It said officials of the NNPC  connived with independent oil marketers and some others in the petroleum industry in the deal.

    Senate Joint Committee on Upstream and Downstream and Gas broke the news at a briefing in Abuja.

    Chairmen, Senate Committee on Petroleum (downstream) Kabiru Marafa, who spoke on behalf of the joint committee, said of the N10 trillion, NNPC is to account for N5.2 trillion it collected as subsidy from the Federal Government for importation of petroleum products, particularly  Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) between 2006 and 2016

    The amount, he said, was aside the 445,000 barrels of crude oil allocated to it on yearly basis for the country’s refineries for local consumption.

    Marafa (Zamfara Central) noted that records showed that during the period under investigation, “NNPC imported fuel into the country that was more than 40 per cent of local consumption apart from gross under-utilisation of the 445,000 barrels it collected for local refining for local consumption on yearly basis”.

    He said: “NNPC, being the custodian of crude oil resources of the nation, is responsible for 51 per cent of petroleum products importation into the country over the years aside the 445,000 crude allocations it gives itself on yearly basis for sales for local refining. It must account for the N5.2 trillion available records show that it has spent on subsidy on its own 51 per cent of petroleum products importation between 2006 and 2016 aside the N3.8 trillion spent on similar subsidy for independent marketers and about $1.5 billion yet to be accounted for by other key players in the industry,” he said.

    Marafa added that the committee also discovered another dimension of fraud in the industry through disappearance of PMS from storage leased by NNPC without any accountability and or return of the value of the stolen product.

    He said it was discovered that 100 million litres of PMS worth N14 billion was stolen by two different companies without sanction by the NNPC.

    Marafa said: “This committee has established the missing of 100 million litres of PMS from such storage arrangement. We expected NNPC to have taken action against the two companies that carried out the theft. But since it has not, we hereby order it to do so immediately, precisely within this week, failure of which we shall make the whole details known to the public.

    “All key players in the sector along with their collaborators who have taken the country for a ride during the period under review, must be brought to book through exhaustive investigation to be conducted soon because President Muhammadu Buhari and the Senate leadership are very much interested in unmasking those behind the scam perpetrated during the Presidency of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and by extension, the present presidency.

    “President Buhari is highly supportive of this move by the Senate and we shall not fail in carrying out the needed holistic investigation on obvious sharp practices in the sector. Needed documents for the onerous task are already in our possession.”

    The committee listed those to appear before it for further hearing as past and present chief executives of NNPC, their counterparts from the independent marketers, licensed inspection agency, Nigeria Ports Authority, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Customs Service and NIMASA.

    Marafa said the whistle-blower approach being adopted by the Federal Government in unravelling fraudulent practices of corrupt public officials would be adopted in fishing out those involved in the massive oil sector fraud.

    The joint committee chairman warned that sanctions await players in the sector who might want to frustrate the investigation by deliberately refusing to honour invitation sent to them or concealing needed information.

  • Senate and confirmation of Justice Walter Onnoghen

    Senate and confirmation of Justice Walter Onnoghen

    The confirmation of the nomination of Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen, as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) on Wednesday was one of the high profile confirmation hearings by the Senate.

    The confirmation of ministerial nominees was important, but it was not trailed by intrigue and high wired politics as was the nomination and confirmation of Onnoghen.

    Following the undue delay in the submission of the nomination of Onnoghen to the Senate for confirmation, tongues began to wag. Threats were issued. Ethnic and religious colouration came to play.

    There was palpable apprehension. The three months deadline for Justice Onnoghen to be forwarded to the Senate elapsed. The National Judicial Council (NJC) renewed the nomination to the relief of many who saw confusion in the Judiciary creeping dangerously in the dark.

    At last common sense prevailed. Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, submitted the nomination of Onnoghen for the exalted position to the Senate for confirmation, once again to the reprieve of most Nigerians.

    The battle shifted from the NJC and the Presidency to the confirming authority, the Senate.

    If you thought that the Senate will do the needful by according the nominee speedy confirmation owing to the fact of the delay in submitting his name, you may have to think again.

    The leadership of the Senate was emphatic that there would not be a special session to consider the nomination of Justice Onnoghen. That was final. The waiting game continued.

    On April 21, when the Senate reconvened plenary, Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, read Osinbajo’s letter.  There was jubilation in the Senate gallery over the letter.

    On the appointed day, fillers emerged that the confirmation hearing might be aborted. Reason, some powerful forces in the Senate were said to have kicked against the screening.

    Many heaved a sigh of relief when it emerged that the confirmation hearing of Justice Onnoghen was listed as one of the legislative businesses of the day.

    The screening was adjudged as one of the best in recent history. Avoidable controversies trailed the nomination, but the whole claims, real and imagined, collapsed like a pack of tissue.

    Justice Onnoghen was methodical and firm in his answers.

    He was adjudged to have discharged himself creditably. The Senate accordingly did not hesitate to ask him to take a bow. As Onnoghen made to leave the chamber, majority of the lawmakers emptied themselves into his entourage. Most of those who went to see Onnoghen off were later said to be those with cases in court. A handful of other Senators claimed they were shortchanged by the seeming abrupt manner the screening ended.  Those in this category said they had issues they wanted to raise with Justice Onnoghen. There was a mild drama. One of the issues, they said, was the high legal fees lawyers charge politicians. Saraki ruled that the issues are noted and moved on to put the question that the Senate do confirm Justice Walter Onnoghen as CJN. The approval was unanimous. The entire thing was remarkable.