SENATE CLEARS AIR ON ALLEGED MISSING 2016 BUDGET
The Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Honourable Abdulmumin Jibrin, has said that there was no truth to insinuations that the 2016 budget document is missing.
He said that the claims may have been inspired by the initial insufficiency of the copies of the budget available to all the lawmakers.
“As far as I am concerned, that story does not hold water. We were expecting copies to be printed and sent to the National Assembly but there was a bit of delay.
“As at yesterday, I can confirm to you that the Appropriation Committee in the House received a lot of copies of the budget. By the time the Clerk counted it today, it was not sufficient to go round members.
“I spoke with the Minister of Planning earlier today [Tuesday] and he assured me that before the end of today he will deliver the remaining copies.
“For the soft copy I also reminded him and he sent it to me and I handed it over to the House,” he explained.
Honourable Jibrin said the rumour of missing budget may have been triggered by the delay in the production of more copies of the budget.
“You should realise that we have a new government in place and I think that there is little issue of communication gap and they are trying to get themselves settled. We should be able to excuse them and support the President wherever there is a bit of limitation from his own side."
Earlier, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, had a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
N13BN FRAUD: EFCC TO ARRAIGN TOMPOLO, AKPOLOKEMI THURSDAY
A Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered an ex-Niger Delta militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, to unconditionally appear before it on Thursday to answer 40 counts of alleged N13bn fraud levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Tompolo had been charged on Tuesday with an amended 40 counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering alongside an ex-Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Patrick Akpobolokemi.
Justice Ibrahim Buba granted the order to compel Tompolo’s appearance in chambers on Tuesday shortly after the amended charges were filed in court.
Charged alongside Tompolo and Akpobolokemi are one Kime Engozu, Rex Elem, Gregory Mbonu and Capt Warredi Enisuoh.
The EFCC accused the defendants of conspiracy and fraudulent conversion of NIMASA’s property to their own contrary to Section 18 (a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) (Amendment) Act, 2012.
NIGERIA POLICE OFFICERS TO UNDERGO PSYCHIATRIC TEST
The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, has said that the Nigeria Police Force is considering conducting psychiatric test on recruits and serving officers. Arase stated this at the Nigeria Police Force Health Policy Revalidation meeting in Abuja yesterday.
He said that the initiative became necessary following incidents of indiscriminate use of firearms by personnel of the force.
The IG said that in adequate manpower had exposed officers and men to working for longer hours. He said that the force was also considering establishing a ‘trauma centre’ for its officers and men because of the nature of their job
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the missing budget, i saw it before it happened because no in the history of Nigeria has any government presented a budget without including the subsidy. though they may have their reasons but i smell the subsidy scam in the budget
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