News
The Senate has said it is uncertain when the 2018 Appropriation Bill will be passed by the National Assembly.
The legislature and the executive have been passing the buck on which arm of government is responsible for the delayed passage of the budget, which President Muhammadu Buhari laid before a joint session of the National Assembly on November 7, 2017.
“The budget process is on and I cannot tell you ‘this is the specific day it is going to end.’ All I can tell you specifically is that we are working very hard on it and we want to assure Nigerians that, at the end of the day, we will have a budget that will serve the purpose of Nigerians,” he said.
Sabi-Abdullahi also stated that he could not ascertain the level of response by the Federal Government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies whose heads were accused of failing to turn up for budget defence sessions being held by relevant legislative committees.
The Senate had on February 14, 2018 asked 63 agencies and parastatals under the Federal Government to submit details of their proposed 2018 budgets within one week or risk sanctions.
The upper chamber of the National Assembly had decried that while the President had complied with the law by laying the 2018 Appropriation Bill along with details of estimates before the lawmakers, the agencies of the government had disregarded the law.
Later on February 28, the Senate asked Nigerians to blame members of Buhari’s cabinet and the MDAs under their portfolios for the delay in the passage of the budget.
The lawmakers alleged that ministers and heads of Federal Government’s departments and agencies were frustrating legislative work on the budget proposals with their foreign trips and non-cooperation.
But the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Ben Akabueze, denied the allegation, stating that the National Assembly already had enough details to work with and pass the Appropriation Bill.
Punch
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Niger State said it has uncovered a fake registration centre in Zungeru, Wushishi Local Government Area of the state.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Professor Sam Egwu, told Daily Trust on yesterday in Minna that the police, through a tip-off, invaded the centre and arrested the alleged culprit with many temporary voters’ cards.
Prof. Egwu said most of the fraudster’s clients were workers of a construction company who requested for voters’ cards or any document to ensure that they were duly registered to vote in the forthcoming elections.
“The suspect normally worked on the temporary voters’ card he obtained to produce new ones for unsuspecting clients,” the REC stated.
He said the fraudster usually charged certain amount of money before issuing the fake cards.
He advised eligible voters to always visit designated INEC registration centres for registration, adding that the commission did not charge money for the exercise.
He said the suspect was undergoing interrogation by security agents.
The REC further disclosed that 10 new registration centres had been added to the state as a way of encouraging more eligible voters to register.
He said a total of 144, 406 eligible voters had so far registered in the ongoing continuous voters’ registration across the state.
DailyTrust
Ondo governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, has declared that the tuition fees paid in some of the state-owned tertiary institutions can only purchase a pair of shoe and not enough to maintain them.
He urged the new Governing Boards of the four institutions in the state to improve funding in the schools through increment in tuition fee and endowment funds.
The Governor, who spoke on Tuesday at the inauguration of the boards, said the current tuition fees were not realistic and could not even maintain water supply in the schools.
The governor charged members of the institutions Governing boards not to entertain any fear, adding that they should be bold to make recommendations.
Akeredolu said: “The education of our people is important to us. It is not easy to govern uneducated people.
“What we pay as tution can buy a pair of shoe. The council members should look at it critically and advise us right.
“There is no other place in South West where they pay meager tution. People don’t want to hear it but we will say it, we are elected to take decision, and that decision we will take.”
A lawyer and right activist, Dr. Tunji Abayomi was inaugurated as the Chairman of / Pro Chancelor of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko.
Others are Dr. Tayo Fawehinmi, Pro-Chancellor/Chairman Ondo State University of Medical Science, Ondo, Prof. Akinbo Adesomoju, Pro-Chancellor /Chairman Ondo State University of Sciences and Technology, Okitipupa (OSUSTECH) and Chief Banji Alabi as Chairman, Governing board of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo (RUGIPO).
Femi Idris was also inaugurated as the Chairman of the state Local Government Service Commission.
DailyPost
The #BringBackOurGirls movement has served the Federal Government a 7-day notice or it will commence a legal action for the “criminal negligence which enabled the abduction of #Dapchigirls”.
The group’s lawyer, Femi Falana stated this at a press conference on Tuesday, during its march to the villa to demand for the rescue of all citizens abducted by insurgents in the country.
Falana said the group was going to court to not only demand for the rescue of the abducted girls but to demand for sanctions of those responsible for the students’ safety.
“Having regards to the circumstances of the development in that part of the country it is intolerable that the same manner of abduction took place. Are we being told that there was no security for those schools in the northeast region?’ he queried.
“We are not just going to court to demand for the rescue of the girls; we are also going to demand for sanction because once you do not punish impunity, you are going to have criminality happen all over the place” he said.
The group had earlier issued a statement where it poses 14 questions relating to the abduction of the girls, demanding swift response from FG.
Also accusing the FG of incompetence with the abduction, the group queried why the military was withdrawn from Dapchi, on whose account and to whom did they hand over?
It also wondered how terrorists carried out their activity for hours unchallenged by FG forces wondering if there was connivance between the abductors and those in the military.
“Now we are being told that a committee has been set up by the same people, it can only be to cover up. So if you want to challenge what has been done by now we expect the government to have fired those who are responsible and those 14 questions are very genuine. Particularly, who withdrew the forces on ground? To who was security handed over to and if nobody can provide answers, then people have to sanction. So we are not just going to court to demand for the search for the girls, we are also going to demand for sanctions” Falana added.
DailyTrust
Several persons have been confirmed dead after suspected herdsmen attacked Tse Igbe in Nyiev Council Ward, Guma LGA of Benue State.
Among those killed in the latest attack, DAILY POST gathered were one Christopher Unenge, a Catholic catechist and another villager identified as Ayem Mbakuughur.
The attack came barely 24 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari paid a condolence visit to the state where he promised to end the lingering crisis between herders and farmers.
Information gathered that the heavily armed gunmen, who stormed the village Tuesday evening, also razed down several houses.
“As we speak, the entire village is empty. Villagers have abandoned their homes for the herdsmen,” a source told our reporter Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, the police could not be reached for comment at the time of this report.
DailyPost
Rtd Julius Maada Bio of opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) and Dr Samura Kamara of the ruling All People's Congress (APC) wil go for presudential run-off vote in two weeks' time having emerged frontrunners in the fiercely contested March 7 elections.
According the final results of the presidential, parliamentary and local council polls released by Mohamed N'fah-Alie Conteh Chair of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) in Freetown Tuesday, Bio received 43.3% or 1.097 million of the votes, followed by Kamara 42.7% or 1.082 mllion votes.
Dr Kandeh Yumkellah of the National Grand Alliance (NGC) is third with 6.9% or 174,014 votes.
NEC Chair quoting the constitution said a second round will take place March 27 since none of the candidates obtained 55% of the votes in the first round.
Some 3.17 voters were registered in the with an estimated seven million population. Votes cast were 2.6 million and valid votes 2.5 million.
Following the announcement on Sunday of 75% of the processed votes, NEC at the instance of some political parties carried out vote recounts at 154 polling stations, while ballots of 221 polling stations were annulled because of irregularities
The winner of the run-off vote will replace outgoing President Ernest Bai Koroma of APC, as the country's 5th President.
This is the first time that Sierra Leone authorities would take charge of the electoral process since end of the country’s 11-year civil war in 2002, and the withdrawal of the UN Mission in 2014.
The US President made the pledge in a telephone call with the Prime Minister just a day after the White House refused to echo Mrs May's claim that the Kremlin was "highly likely" to have been responsible for the attack.
Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia remain in hospital after being found unconscious on a shopping centre bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, nine days ago. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was the first to respond to the incident, is also still receiving treatment.
In the Commons yesterday, Mrs May gave Russia's ambassador to the UK 24 hours to explain to the Foreign Office what had happened.
She said: “Should there be no credible response, we will conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom."
But while White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told journalists the attack was "reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible", she refused to point the finger at Russia.
In a dramatic development, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson - who had blamed Russia for the attack - was sacked from his post by President Trump.
Speaking after the phone call between Mrs May and President Trump, a Downing Street spokesperson said: "The Prime Minister set out the conclusion reached by the UK government that it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for the attack against Sergei and Yulia Skripal.
"President Trump said the US was with the UK all the way, agreeing that the Russian government must provide unambiguous answers as to how this nerve agent came to be used."
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told Mrs May she stands "in full solidarity" with the UK.
The Downing Street spokesperson said: "They discussed the pattern of aggressive Russian behaviour and agreed it would be important to act in unison with allies to counter it.
"Chancellor Merkel condemned the attack and said she stood in full solidarity with the UK. They agreed that the international community should co-ordinate closely as the investigation developed and in the wake of Russia’s response.”
Politics Home
Egypt has a presidential election in March but it won’t be a contest. Weeks to the poll, every credible candidate against the country pharaonic president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has either been imprisoned or forced out of the race.
Sisi’s main challenger was Sami Anan, a former member of the Supreme Military Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF).
He was first barred from running, then arrested and imprisoned along with his principal aide and 30 of his campaign staff. He faces charges of incitement against the military, because he failed to quit his commission properly when he joined the race.
Sisi has banned the media from covering the investigation, blanketing an already opaque affair.
Another candidate, former prime minister, Ahmed Shafik withdrew after rumours spread that he was under arrest in a Cairo hotel.
A nephew of the late Anwar al-Sadat, Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, mulled whether to run but demurred in January, saying that the climate of fear doesn’t allow a proper election.
Only Mussa Mustapha Mussa, a known Sisi supporter and candidate of the Ghad party is still in the race. The opposition is thinking about a boycott.
Egypt has a structural democratic deficit and it won’t be making a transition soon. At every election, Egypt faces two tests: Voter apathy and meddling by the armed forces.
Since the Free Officers deposed King Farouk in 1952, all but one — Mohammed Morsi — of Egypt’s six presidents have been military men. They invariably win with large margins but voter turnout is rarely above 50 per cent.
In 2014, Sisi won 97 per cent of the vote with a turnout of 47.5 per cent. Though Mohammed Morsi won the 2012 re-run with 51 per cent of the vote, his first round vote was 24.8 per cent against a turnout of 46.4 per cent. In 2005, Mubarak won 88.6 per cent of the vote with a turnout of 22.9 per cent.
Sisi’s actions are a sign that the military doesn’t want to risk another unpredictable civilian like Mohammed Morsi.
The Armed Forces are businessmen: The military runs a commercial empire that straddles every important economic sector, including pasta making.
That the economy is not doing well is a serious worry to them. Fortunately for Sisi, he has successfully deflected attention to security, which, for the armed forces, is an even bigger worry.
A stubborn Islamic State insurgency in the Sinai has also helped. In November 2017, an attack on a Sufi mosque in Sinai killed 311 people and injured 122 others. A December 2017 attack on a Coptic church near Cairo killed 10 more. A further 75 were killed in attacks in April and May.
The government’s response has been brutal. The UK daily, The Independent, estimates that 60,000 people - many of them jobless youths- are in jail for ‘terrorism’.
Sisi’s anti-terrorism credentials sell well in the West. US President Donald Trump thinks Sisi has “done a tremendous job under trying circumstances.” France has concluded major arms deals with Egypt.
Meanwhile, a “grateful” Sisi has been busy bursting Western sanctions. Last year, a shipload of 30,000 North Korean rocket-propelled grenades was seized off the Egyptian Coast.
According to the Washington Post, quoting the UN, this was the “largest seizure of ammunition in the history of sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”
So Sisi runs with the hares and hunts with the hounds: An ally of the West against Islamic State and a friend of North Korea when he needs contraband materiel.
The alliances of convenience in Egypt do not portend well for democracy. Sisi will be a shoo-in for president in March but the Egyptian state’s legitimacy crisis will not go away. One day it will bite.
The East African
President Muhammadu Buhari has sacked Brigadier-General Paul Boroh (Rtd) of his appointment as the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme for former Niger Delta militants.
According to a statement issued by Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity) in Abuja on Tuesday, the President has also directed the National Security Adviser (NSA) to carry out a full investigation into the activities of the Amnesty Programme from 2015 to date, especially allegations of financial impropriety and other acts that are allegedly detrimental to the objectives of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.
Prof Dokubo is currently Director of Research and Studies at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs. He holds a PhD in Strategic Studies from the University of Bradford, United Kingdom, and hails from Abonema, Akuku-Toru Local Government of Rivers State.
Boroh who was at the presidential villa, Abuja last Friday, told State House correspondents that some people who called for his sack wanted business as usual.
Boroh said: “I want to let you know that what is happening in the Amnesty Programme is no more business as usual that is the bottom line of all that is happening.
“The programme actually is a security programme that has to do with critical stakeholders who drive the process in the programme.
“I’m only there to supervise what they are doing so that we can achieve the aim for which the programme was established, to ensure youth restiveness is not allowed and ensure peace and stability of the Niger Delta region.”
Boroh was appointed as Special Adviser and Coordinator for the programme in July 2015.
Tribune
At least 40 people have been killed in the last 48 hours in ethnic violence in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo between Hema cattle herders and Lendu farmers, local civil society leader Jean Bosco Lalu told Reuters on Tuesday.
Fighting between the two groups instigated by Lendu-dominated militia has killed dozens since December. Conflict between Hema and Lendu around the turn of the century killed tens of thousands of people.
Reuters
More...
The Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) has so far received 2,000 Ethiopian asylum seekers in the northern border town of Moyale following their displacement in a shootout at the common frontier.
The Ethiopian government forces on Saturday “mistakenly” killed nine civilians near the Kenyan border town of Moyale after mistaking the Ethiopians for members of the banned Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) who were attempting to sneak into the country, reported Daily Nation, Kenya’s highest circulation newspaper.
The KRCS said the displaced persons are hosted in four centres.
“The KRCS immediately released family kits (tarpaulins, kitchen sets, Mosquito nets, bar soaps, thermal blankets and jerrycans), which were distributed among the displaced families,” the agency said in a statement.
The society said the asylum seekers began streaming in on Saturday night, most of whom were women and children.
Kenya’s Eastern Region police commander Moses Ombati said on Monday that security has been beefed up in the area with other government agencies being involved in screening the arriving Ethiopians.
“We are on the ground to ensure things are okay,” Ombati said.
Ombati noted that security has been reinforced on the side of Kenya in Moyale town to deal with the arriving refugees.
He said that they were accommodated at local schools with hopes that the situation will calm down.
They were provided with food and other services at local centres.
“We hope things can cool down before the situation worsens. Many people have arrived but we have sought help from other agencies to deal with it,” said Ombati.
The report said the five Ethiopian soldiers involved in the shootout have been arrested.
According to Daily Nation, the Ethiopian military mistakenly opened fire and killed civilians, which prompted the exodus from the Ethiopian side.
Those who crossed the border to Kenya told Kenyan security agents that electricity had been cut off in the town which forced the residents to flee into Kenya in fear of more attacks.
Ethiopia is currently under a state of emergency due to protests after the resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.
Daily Nation
President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected the proposed amendments to Nigeria’s Electoral Act.
In a letter addressed to Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, the president stated amongst other reasons that the amendments infringes on the rights of INEC.
A similar letter was sent to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
The amendments proposed by the National Assembly sought to make some changes in Nigeria’s electoral act including changing the sequence of the 2019 election.
The federal lawmakers want their election to come up first, followed by that of state lawmakers and governors, and lastly the presidential election.
Some All Progressives Congress senators had kicked against the adoption of the report, accusing the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, of influencing it.
The letter to the Senate reads, “Pursuant to Section 58(4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), I hereby convey to the Senate, my decision, on 3rd March 2018, to decline Presidential Assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill 2018 recently passed by the National Assembly.
“Some of my reasons include the following:
“The amendment to the sequence of elections in Section 25 of the principal act, may infringe upon the constitutionally guaranteed discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organise, undertake and supervise elections provided in Section 15(A) of the third statue to the Constitution;
“The amendment to Section 138 of the principal act to delete two crucial grounds upon which an election may be challenged by candidates, unduly limits the rights of candidates in elections to a free and fair electoral review process;
“The amendment to Section 152 Subsection 325 of the Principal Act may raise Constitutional issues over the competence of the National Assembly to legislate over local government elections.
“Please accept Distinguished Senators, the assurances of my highest consideration.”
With the rejection of amendments by the president, the next option left for the National Assembly is to override the president’s veto or let the act remain as it is.
P/T
Hillary Clinton told an audience in India that the United States did not "deserve" Donald Trump's presidency and these are "perilous times."
The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate spoke over the weekend at a conference in Mumbai.
Clinton said the Republican president has "quite an affinity for dictators" and said Trump "really likes their authoritarian posturing and behavior." But she said she thinks it's "more than that" with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia.
Clinton was critical of the reality campaign tactics of her opponent and questioned whether she should have provided more entertainment to voters who responded to Trump's brash style.
The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
AP
The Suspended former Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin has sent in a letter apologizing to the House of Representatives for his numerous allegations that put the Green Chamber into disrepute.
The Speaker of the House Yakubu Dogara, who showed the letter on the floor today at plenary, said Jibrin has fulfilled all the conditions that he was given by the House ” and can resume legislative duties if he so wishes.”
Recall that Jibrin was suspended for 180 days on September 16th 2016 after the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges considered his case and made recommendations to the House which were adopted.
Jibrin was also barred from occupying any position of authority in the Green Chamber till the 8th assembly ends.
To be forgiven, the suspended lawmaker must tender a formal written apology to the House, which must be advertised in a number of daily newspapers amongst other requirements.
Jibrin had incurred the wrath of the House with his numerous allegations against the Speaker Yakubu Dogara and three other principal officers.
He claimed the 2016 budget was padded the 2016 budget to the tune of billions of Naira by the quartet and referred to the Speaker as “corrupt” and a “shameless thief”
Jibrin also alleged that members of the House received hundreds of millions as running cost, a claim which annoyed most members.
The Nation