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HOUSE OF REPS MEMBER ESCAPED LYNCHING BY YOUTHS FROM HIS CONSTITUENTS IN KATSINA

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HOUSE OF REPS MEMBER ESCAPED LYNCHING BY YOUTHS FROM HIS CONSTITUENTS IN KATSINA

A member of the House of Representatives Escaped Lynching by Youths from His Constituents in Katsina. The Member representing DutsinmaKurfi constituency in the House of Representatives, Danlami Mohammed Kurfi, narrowly escaped lynching by youths of his own constituency.

He was said to have been used to fake promises and empty fulfilment since he was elected into office.

The youths who spoke to us said, he uses their money to live a life of luxury while the masses are suffering.
He will regret ever being a politician, the youths said.

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2018 BUDGET: BUHARI STRUCK DEAL WITH NASS LEADERS

A meeting of the National Assembly leadership held at the Presidential Villa last week appeared to have softened the ground for the presentation of the 2018 budget estimates, sources in the legislature have said.

The president is scheduled to present the 2018 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly tomorrow, having communicated the two chambers of the Assembly to seek permission.

It was gathered that though the budget estimates were ready and had been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), the National Assembly was not ready to receive the document until substantial work was done on 2018 to 2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), the prerequisites to the budget.

Sources in the legislature confirmed that the lawmakers were not eager to receive the budget because the Presidency had submitted the MTEF/FSP quite late.

A number of the committee chairmen were of the view that allowing the president to submit the budget when much work had not been done on the MTEF would amount to dumping the budget on the legislature.

Some lawmakers were also said to have cautioned that the same Presidency would start engineering Nigerians to agitate for quick passage of the budget once it was submitted, not minding that the lawmakers needed to follow due process.

As things are, not much work has been done on the documents that must have been passed before the budget could be computed.

Besides, a number of committee chairmen in the Senate and the House of Representatives were said to have reported the poor implementation of the 2017 budget to the leadership, prompting the lawmakers to demand a comprehensive report on the budget implementation.

For instance, sources said that at a recent executive session in one of the chambers, when issues of budget implementation were mentioned, some of the committee chairmen reported that the 2017 budget had not been implemented up to 15 per cent and that most of the agencies were reporting 11 to 14 per cent implementation.

As a result of the report, many of the members were said to have mandated their leaders to secure a detailed report from the president before the presentation of the 2018 budget.

The failure of the principal officers to secure detailed information on the implementation of the 2017 budget was said to have informed the ‘nay’ vote against the president’s letter when it was read on the floor of the House last week.

Sources, however, said the leadership of the Senate and the House had assured the president that they would prevail on their members to create a conducive atmosphere for the budget presentation.

“Despite indications that the president did not give clear and direct answers to some of the questions raised at the dinner last Tuesday, the leadership had decided to reach out to members to pave the way for the president to present the budget,” a lawmaker said on Sunday.

He added, however, that the president would have a tough time convincing members that the 2017 budget had been faithfully implemented.

It was also gathered that the leadership of the Assembly could not affirm the need to quickly pass the budget before the end of the year.

“No one can guarantee that,” a senator said.

“Where the president would have a problem is in convincing members that his team has implemented the 2017 budget faithfully. But the leadership has appealed that members should hear the nation’s leader out first and do what is needful on the document to be submitted.

“Essentially, the budget document becomes a property of the National Assembly once submitted by the president and that is what the leadership is preaching to avoid any sort of heckling on,” another lawmaker told.

It was gathered that the Villa meeting, though agreed on the presentation of the budget before the passage of the MTEF/FSP, also agreed on a carryover of most of the constituency projects contained in the 2017 budget, which had not been implemented at all.

Sources in the polity, however, told Tribune Online that the Presidency was already expressing worries over the perceived unfavourable atmosphere in the House of Representatives, a situation the All Progressives Congress (APC) had been asked to check.

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160 REPS REJECT OFFICIAL CAR

About 160 members of the House of Representatives have rejected its leadership’s offer to provide them with official cars. The members want cash instead.

The Green Chamber is spending about N6.1 billion on procurement of 360 units Peugeot 508 for members, at a unit price of N17 million.

The cars have been coming in trickles, since December 2015, when the plans to procure them was agreed.

As at August 2017, about 200 units had been procured and distributed to members.
But, a source told Daily Sun yesterday, that members who were yet to get their vehicles are now mounting pressure on the House leadership to give them the monetary value of the cars.

The demand for monetisation of the cars, it was gathered, is against the backdrop of the cash crunch affecting the federal legislature.

Besides, the source said “some of the legislators believe there is no need for the cars as they have spent more than half of their tenure.”

A member, who declined to be named, confirmed the development, and noted that “majority of those yet to get their official cars prefer to be given cash, in lieu of the cars.”

He, however, said the legislators are demanding monetisation of the cars, because “they don’t like Peugeot 508, and not for any other reason.”

The lawmaker, who confirmed that he has gotten his own vehicles, said members had, from the outset, expressed reservations about the car.

He noted that many had expressed preference for Toyota Camry or Prado jeep, and argued that giving cash, in lieu of the cars, would enable them buy cars of their choice.

“Some of them wanted Camry. Some wanted Prado. If they cannot buy them what they want, what is wrong in giving them money to buy. The most important thing is for them to buy.

“ State assembly members are using Prado. Councillors are using Camry. What is the big deal about Peugeot 508? What is Peugeot 508?

“It is an embarrasment for anyone to want to make an issue out of this. Don’t you see the convoy of ministers when they come to the National Assembly?

“If you go to the (Presidential) Villa, they ride Mercedez Benz. There are three tiers of government. They should not be treating us as if we are not part of this government,” the lawmaker stated.

When sought the reaction of the Chairman of the House Services Committee, Nasiru Baballe Ila, whose committee is charge of procuring the cars, he replied in a text message thus; “get in touch with (Abdulrasaq) Namdas, he is the spokesman of the House.”

However, efforts to speak with the Chairman of the Committee on Media, Abdulrasaq Namdas was unsuccessful as his mobile telephone was switched off.

Also, Speaker Yakubu Dogara’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Hassan Turaki, did not respond to any enquiry on the issue.

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