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Tag: Speaker Yakubu Dogara

  • Buhari writes Reps on resumption of work

    Buhari writes Reps on resumption of work

    President Muhammadu Buhari has informed the House of Representatives of his resumption to work from his annual/medical leave.

    The letter was delivered to Speaker Yakubu Dogara Monday by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly matters (House of Reps) Hon. Abdurhaman Kawu Sumaila

    A statement by Dogara’s Special Adviser (Media and Public Affairs) Turaki Hassan reads, “Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, on Monday received communication from President Muhammadu Buhari on his resumption to duty.

    “Speaking shortly after the letter was handed over to him by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters (House of  Reps) Hon. Suleiman Abdurhaman Kawu Sumaila, Dogara said he will read the letter to his colleague in plenary on Tuesday since the communication was meant for them.

    “Tomorrow (Tuesday) I will read this to my colleagues on the floor of the House and thereafter make comments from there,” he said.

    “However, permit me to thank you for working hard to ensure that there is harmonious working relationship between the Executive and the National Assembly.”

    “In your own case I can say it was an appointment that we can truly say amounted to putting a round peg in a round hole or a square peg in a square hole.”

    “So no wonder we have seen to some extent some form of understanding between the National Assembly   and the presidency.”

    “We promise that we will cooperate more than we fight like 1 said before we will always fight and that has been the practice in all climes and ours cannot an exception  but we will cooperate more in the interest of our people rather than fight.”

    “While presenting the letter to the Speaker, Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters (House of Reps) Hon. Suleiman Abdurhaman Kawu Sumaila commended him for supporting the president and the Executive arm of government”.

     

  • Reps bemoan economic situation 

    Reps bemoan economic situation 

    The House of Representatives has said the prevailing economic situation is unacceptable and has given a three-month deadline for a reversal of the situation.

    As a consequence, the House has mandated an ad hoc Committee to interact with relevant stakeholders in public and private sectors to ensure a reversal of the prevailing recession within three months.

    The lawmakers however absolved themselves of blames on the economic crisis confronting the country, notwithstanding that the legislature is part of government.

    While inaugurating the Wole Ayorinde-led tactical committee on economic recession Tuesday, Speaker Yakubu Dogara said the House could no longer stand aloof and watch the situation gets worse considering the report of the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that stated that economic recession is already with the country.

    “The double quarters of negative growth, High levels of inflation, worsening purchasing power of the Naira and the increasing levels of unemployment are all strong indicators that all is not well.

    “Today, some of our people can no longer afford to feed. Some School children are dropping out of school due to inability of parents to pay school fees. Transportation, power, healthcare are difficult for the ordinary citizen. There is general anguish on the faces of Nigerians due to poverty and hunger.

    “We cannot however, continue to lament. The problems are well known. At this point in time, it is the solutions that matters more and that is what should engage our attention. As a parliament, we are committed to ensuring that the sufferings experienced by ordinary Nigerians are alleviated.

    “These challenges may appear too difficult to surmount but the good news is that they are surmountable. Other nations have surmounted greater economic challenges in the past and Nigeria’s case cannot be different”.

    Chairman of the 16-member committee, Wole Ayorinde (APC, Ondo) however said the impact of the committee will be felt immediately by Nigerians

    According to him; the recommendations of the committee would be implemented by relevant stakeholders immediately interactions are concluded with the Committee.

    He said: “This is not a talk shop, we will look into the free fall of naira and in the next three months, we shall see whether how much we can go with our interaction with relevant agencies to ensure that the current foreign exchange will not fall beyond that but improve before the end of the tenure of our committee. That is what we are going to work towards.

    “The outcome of the activities of this Committee will be implemented as we are working. If we interact with the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) for instance and we agreed on certain things within the constitutional mandates of the Customs, as we are leaving they are implementing because they will want to be seen to be jointly working together to rescue the economy.

    “They won’t wait for the report of the Committee; we will start feeling the impact of the committee as we swing into action.

    “If we have interaction with the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN ) and we agreed on certain measures to arrest the free fall of the naira before we leave that place, the CBN governor would start to implement our recommendations.

    “This not a talk shop, this Committee is not a study group but to join hands with relevant agencies to put in place policies that will quickly return our economy to the path of stability, growth and development”.

    When asked if the setting of the committee was not an apology and an admittance of failure of the National Assembly to properly oversight Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) before the country went into recession, Ayorinde said the legislators cannot be blamed.

    “We are not apologising because we have not done anything wrong.

    “In the exercise of our mandate in the House, we have done that which the constitution provided for the House to do.

    “We are also not apportioning blame, what we have done as a responsive and responsible House is to feel the pain of Nigerians and rise to the occasion to join hands with the executive so as to quickly bring back smiles into the faces of Nigerians,” he said.

     

  • Southern Kaduna: Reps summon security agencies’ chiefs

    Southern Kaduna: Reps summon security agencies’ chiefs

    Heads of security agencies in the country have been directed to brief members of the House of Representatives at plenary over the security situation in the country, it emerged yesterday.

    The invitation followed the adoption of a motion on violent terror attacks on the people of Kaura Federal Constituency of Southern Kaduna by unknown gunmen.

    Though the date of the appearance of the security chiefs has not been fixed, the meeting would be held behind closed doors, Speaker Yakubu Dogara said.

    The lawmakers said it was high time security and intelligence agencies take responsibility for the escalation of attacks in conflict-prone areas around the country.

    The lawmakers also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to deal decisively with the masterminds of the attacks, be more proactive in identifying the exact areas of the attacks and carry out a comprehensive security mapping to identify the base of the attackers in order to combat the menace.

    Mover of the motion, Gideon Gwani (APC, Kaduna) noted with grief the violent terror attacks of 6th – 9th January 2017 at Tachirak, Adu and Tsonje villages of Kagoro town in Kaura Federal constituency of Southern Kaduna which led to the death of 13 people.

    He, however, regretted that despite the 24 hours curfew imposed in the area and the presence of men of the Armed Forces and the Police, gunmen continued to attack villages and unleash mayhem, while the security personnel deployed remained in the township.

    Gwani, who recalled the resolution of the House on Wednesday, June 24, 2015, in which the executive was urged to set up a high-powered committee to comprehensively address the incessant killings in Kaduna State and other parts of the country, regretted that it has not been complied with.

    During the debate, lawmakers wondered why it was impossible for security agencies to identify masterminds and perpetrators of crises in Southern Kaduna that began in the early 1980s.

    They said the intelligence community has failed in identifying the perpetrators and preventing the breakout of hostilities as they are more visible running errands rather than performing their primary responsibility of covert gathering information.

    While noting that there have always been reports and recommendations by Committees set up by governments to investigate each attack, the lawmakers regretted that none has been implemented citing Gen Martin Luther Agwai-led Committee that probed one of the crises in Southern Kaduna.

    The lawmakers urged Nigerians to support the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government to find a lasting solution to the crisis rather than condemn it considering the fact that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government failed to nab the mastermind of the crisis in its 16 years rule.

    The Speaker, Yakubu Dogara assured that the government is not relenting in efforts to find an enduring solution to the Southern Kaduna crisis.

    “I have the opportunity of discussing the issue with Mr President and he assured that steps with a lasting solution are being taken and will soon begin to manifest.

    “It is also our duty to support and monitor those steps and if they are not working, it is our responsibility to also do something about it,” Dogara said.

    While the Federal government was urged to provide relief material to victims of the attack,  Committees on Army, Airforce, Police Affairs, Interior and National Security and Intelligence were mandated to analyse the situation and proffer solutions to the security challenges in the area and report back to the House within four weeks for further legislative action.

  • Reps consider Buhari’s N180b virement request

    Reps consider Buhari’s N180b virement request

    The House of Representatives is set to consider the request of President Muhammadu Buhari for the virement of N180b.

    The request which came through a motion by the Majority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila was passed with no resistance from the floor on Wednesday. 

    President Buhari had in a letter dated Tuesday, 25 October 2016 to Speaker Yakubu Dogara requested for virement of funds in the Appropriation Act, 2016.

    The request was in respect of virement of funds appropriated for special intervention  (Recurrent) and special intervention (Capital) to fund some critical Recurrent and Capital items.

    According to the President,  the request was necessitated by a number of reasons, including shortfalls in provisions of Personnel cost, the inadequate provision for the Amnesty Programme,  the need to sustain the war against insurgency and the depreciation of the Naira.

    The letter that came together with the $90b loan request on the same day  was read on the floor while the Speaker said it will be  listed for debate the following week.

    Following the rejection of the President’s requests by the Senate, the House clarified it’s position that it has not rejected the letter but would  rather consider it through a substantive motion.

    The Majority Leader, while justifying the need for the House to consider the motion said in the course of implementing the Appropriation Act, 2016, several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) presented issues pertaining to salary shortfalls as it affects the MDAs that are not under the platform of Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), and some MDAs that are under the IPPIS platform wpuld be locked put as their Personnel Cist budgets would not cover salaries for the rest of the year.

    “Also the Nigerian Air Force needs to cover the foreign exchange differentials in the procurement of its critical equipment and augment the contigency vote, and also to provide for inadequacy in the provision for the National Youth Service Corps in 2016, among others,” he added.

    The motion was unanimously adopted after it was put to a voice vote by the presiding officer, Deputy Speaker Yussuff Lasun, who referred it to Committee on Appropriation and other Committees to which the virement relates to serve as sub-committees of the Committee on Appropriations.
  • Jibrin hires Falana to sue House of Reps

    Jibrin hires Falana to sue House of Reps

    The House of Representatives member and former chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has taken to social media to dismiss his suspension on Wednesday as ridiculous, unfounded, ‘which cannot stand anywhere’.

    The member representing Bebeji/Kiru Federal Constituency of Kano state, in series of tweets Wednesday night, the internet savvy Rep member said he would challenge the suspension in court.

    Jibrin said he has already briefed Femi Falana, the popular human rights lawyer and senior advocate to file a case of contempt against the Yakubu Dogara led House.

    The former ally of Dogara said he did not commit any offence when he blew the whistle over budget padding by the leaders of the House, adding that he owes no one any apology for his action.

    “Let me state very clearly that I will never ever apologise to anybody in the House of Reps. There is no reason what so ever to apologiseI did not commit any offence. I did not abuse my office. For the five years I have served, I have never corruptedly enriched myself,” he wrote.

    “In contrast, these are the allegations that I raised against Mr Speaker and others which they have not responded till date.

    “The bad news for Speaker and his cabal is despite doing their worst and exhausted their bullets by “suspending” me, it has not in any way

    “Despite the “suspension” the fact has not changed that the Speaker conspired with others to commit monumental budget fraud and corruption

    “I stand by all the allegations I raised. I wish to state categorically that there is chronic individual&systemic corruption in the House

    “It is on strength of such weak institution that the Speaker continues to flaunt a fake popularity in the House since many members are culprits.”

  • We are not aware of budget padding – Presidency

    We are not aware of budget padding – Presidency

    The budget padding controversy took a different turn on Tuesday as the Presidency denied knowledge of any padding in the budget presented to the President for his ascent.
    Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Hon. Ismail Kawu told newsmen in Abuja that the budget signed by the President which is being implemented was not a padded budget.
    Senator Enang, who spoke after over three hours meeting with the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said in legislative palace, there was nothing like budget padding, pointing out that when the a budget is presented to the National Assembly, it is expected that they deliberate and pass it as they deem fit.
    The former Chairman of the House committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumini Jubrin, had accused Speaker Yakubu Dogara, his deputy and two other principal officers of being the brain behind the budget padding.
    However, while the controversy rages on, a group lawmakers which identified itself as Transparency Group had accused the executive arm of government of not free from the blame either on the issue.
    Enang however, refused to give details of their meeting with the APC leadership, pointing out that they have all been asked not to make further public comment on the issue as the party was handling it as a family affair.
    He said: “I am here on the invitation of the leadership of the APC with my colleague to bring answers to issues raised by the party on the 2016 Appropriation and we have been with the party for a little over three hours. We have given explanations to them on every issue and told them that there was nothing, to our knowledge, like padding of the budget.
    “The budget as assented to by Mr. President is the budget as passed by the National Assembly and that is the budget being executed.
    “But as of now, the party is handling it as a domestic issue, and all of us are enjoined not to make public comment on the details because the matter is still under consideration.
    “So, that is what we will want to say for now, we will not want to go into the details of it so that we will not breach the ethics of the party, the directives of the party or pre-empt anything or any outcome of the party investigation.”
    Asked whether the Presidency was giving the Leadership of the House of Representatives a clean bill over the issue, he said “I will want to say that we came here as persons who works as liaison officers on the budget because the party had questions for us and we came to make clarifications on the issues raised.
    “We have made those clarifications and would not want to draw any conclusion. Please let us not go too far by mentioning any office. Let it be that the two of us appeared before the party.
    “In all our years of legislative engagement, we are yet to find in the legislative lexicon the word ‘padding’. When the budget is presented before the legislature, the legislature is to consider the budget and pass as they deem fit. So what the legislature pass becomes the appropriation upon accent. Therefore, any word which is yet to crystallize in legislative lexicon, you cannot hear us mention it.”

  • ‘Current NASS, worst since 1999’

    ‘Current NASS, worst since 1999’

    • Urges EFCC to investigate budget padding

    A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, Olusegun Osinkolu, has described the 8th National Assembly as the worst in the nation’s history since the return of democratic rule in 1999.

    Speaking with reporters on Monday in Ado Ekiti on the crisis rocking the National Assembly, Osinkolu expressed regrets that the federal lawmakers have disappointed the electorate by their alleged involvement in forgery and budget padding.

    Ahead of the 2019 general elections, Osinkolu urged Nigerians to be more vigilant and careful on the personality of candidates seeking their votes for National Assembly seats advocating for election of people of integrity.

    He expressed fear that winning the anti-corruption war would be very difficult if the National Assembly still parades personalities like Senate President Bukola Saraki, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and Speaker Yakubu Dogara still holding top posts.

    The duo of Saraki and Ekweremadu are currently answering forgery charges in a Federal High Court in Abuja over alleged alteration of the standing rules that brought them into office.

    While Dogara and  former Chairman,  House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jubrin  are exchanging verbal abuses over alleged budget padding running into billions of Naira.

    Osinkolu said: “President Muhammadu Buhari alone cannot win the war against graft. He needed good institutions like the Senate and House of Representatives to win the war.

    “We need men of integrity, those with strong characters and incorruptible nature to lead that pivotal arm to help the executive raise the bar of governance beyond this pedestrian level.
    “The silence of the members of both chambers in the midst of these raging controversies lent credence to the fact that they are also complicit. They have not comported themselves in the most honourable way and this portends grave danger to us as a nation.

    “President Buhari was elected by the popular notion that he has integrity and the political will to tackle corruption in any form. He shouldn’t disappoint Nigerians in this regard because sparing these big men might cast a thick doubt on the integrity of the APC-led federal government.

    “Making laws need not be a full time job where Governors finish serving as executives in a state for 8 yrs will run to the Senate to remain relevant  and to seek refuge against prosecution.”

    The APC chieftain called on the federal government and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) not to spare anybody indicted of complicity in the official malfeasance going on in both chambers of the national assembly.

    Particularly, Osinkolu appealed to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami not to bow to pressure and harassment coming from the senators on the alleged forgery case, saying his ability to prosecute such  high profile case would send a signal that President Buhari is committed to ridding the country of criminality.

  • Budget padding allegations against me all lies – Ogor

    Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Rep. Leo Ogor, says the budget padding allegation against him and other principal officials including Speaker Yakubu Dogàra, are outright lies.

    Ogor made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.

    He said he did not “want to go into altercation with anybody’’ and that “at the appropriate time, when we resume on the floor we will speak.”

    “I don’t want to go into altercation with anybody.

    “At the appropriate time, when we resume on the floor we will speak.

    “But I can assure you that they are all bunch of lies and there is nothing to it.

    “So I am not going to waste my time responding to an issue I consider totally inconsequential.’’
    Cue out audio

    It will be recalled that Rep. Abdulmumin Jibrin, former Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, on Thursday asked Speaker Yakubu Dogara, his deputy, Yussuff Lasun, minority leader, Leo Ogor and Chief Whip, Ado Doguwa to resign for alleged budget padding.

    Jibrin in a statement issued to newsmen, accused Dogara and the other principal officers of illegally inserting and allocating projects worth over N20 billion to their constituencies in the 2016 budget.

    He said that his refusal to inject another N30 billion into the budget for the speaker earned him the replacement.
    Ogor questioned why his accuser had to wait until now to make the allegations.

    He said that Jibrin was aggrieved because he lost his place in the House Committee on Appropriation.

    “You can read the lines; he has actually lost his committee and I believe that is the issue.

    “Why didn’t he make available these allegations all along? This is the question you need to answer.

    “How come he was the one that addressed the issue of this budget on channels and he accused the Presidency and the executive in respect of issues that bother on the budget.

    “Today, he is singing a different tune, and I think he is good at singing different tunes anyway.

    “So like I said, I am not going to go into any altercation with any person.

    “I am not going to waste my time over that issue and what he has said are all lies and this kind of blackmail doesn’t work with the likes of Leo Ogor.

    “So you see he is just wasting his time. I am expecting him to come and prove what he has said.’’

  • Reps bill to protect social media users passes second reading

    Reps bill to protect social media users passes second reading

    A ‎bill to protect social media users against hate speech was passed through second reading yesterday by the House of Representatives.

    The bill with the title: A Bill for an Act to Provide for the Protection of Human Rights Online, was sponsored by a member, Hon. Chukwuemeka Ujam (PDP-Enugu),

    The piece of legislation, also known as the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill, seeks to guard and guide Nigerian internet users on their rights and to protect the rights from infringement.

    The bill was unanimously passed when the Speaker Yakubu Dogara called for a voice vote and was referred to the Committees on Telecommunications and Human Rights.

    The proposed bill, in Section 20(3), provides against hate speech online. while Section 12 of the Bill outlines the process to be followed before access is granted to governmental agencies and others to the personal data of citizens.

    Part of the provisions of the bill is the provision for the protection of citizen’s rights to the Internet and it’s free use without undue monitoring.

    Ujam while speaking on the bill at plenary said the proposed legislation is targeted at ensuring openness, Internet access, affordability and freedom of information online.

    According to him, despite being a subscriber to international charters which recognise freedom and access to the Internet as a human right, such as the African Union Convention on Cyber-Security and Personal Data Protection of 2014, Nigeria lacked a legal framework for the protection of internet users,

    He said: “For the first time in the history of Nigeria and by extension,Africa, offences relating to the ownership of personal data, hate speech online is addressed through the instrumentally of this piece of legislation called the Digital Rights Bill”.

    Aminu Shagari (APC-Sokoto) and Mohammed Sani Zoro (APC-Jigawa) while supporting the bill opined that unlike an earlier attempt to regulate the internet by the Senate, the Digital Rights Bill is designed for the protection of persons online.

    Sani Zoro especially harped on the need for creating awareness on the details of bill to prevent the public from mistaking it as  legislation that will restrict the freedom of internet users in the country.