TheNewsGuru

Tag: NASS

  • Protest turns sour: Protesters call for Saraki’s resignation

    The Citizens Actions to Take Back Nigeria (CATBAN) that thronged the entrance of the National Assembly (NASS) Complex protesting the adjustments made in the 2018 Appropriation Act by the Legislature has called on Senate President Bukola Saraki to resign.

    TheNewsGuru reports the protesters arrived in about 11 luxurious busses, popularly known as “El-rufai bus”, playing music and chanting songs, calling for the resignation of the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki after their peaceful protest turned sour.

    The protesters carried placards which read: “Constituency projects is now corruption, it must stop”; “Nigerians are not represented in the sharing of the loot via constituency projects”; and “National Assembly not for armed runners,” among others.

    The security personnel in a bid to maintain law and order, shut the main gate to the complex, preventing the protesters from entering the premises while the group tried to force their way in.

    As a result, visitors and workers who were to resume their daily duties were also prevented from entering, forcing them to use alternative routes.

    The convener of the group, Mr Ibrahim Wala, said that the NASS no longer represents the people of Nigeria.

    He said that the many adjustments and introductions of several projects in to the 2018 Appropriation Act by the legislature necessitated the protest.

    Wala said that constituency projects should be implemented in all constituencies represented by each member of the NASS.

    He alleged that the members connived with contractors to collect the money and do not execute the projects that would have benefited citizens.

    According to him, since 2004 to date, constituency projects have been appropriated for but nothing has changed.

    “The worst of it is what we are seeing in the 2018 budget, these people inserted thousands of interns.

    “We are here representing the entire citizens of this country; the crowd you see here represents the voices of Nigerians.

    “Nigerians want a situation whereby when we vote individuals into office they should work with the people and not represent their own interests,” he said.

    He urged the security personnel at the gate not to deprive the people of their right to access the premises in peaceful protest.

    According to Wala, the group is made up of young women and men that are concerned with the cause of the nation.

    No member of the NASS was available to address the protesters who had been denied access into the premises.

    The NASS resumed on Tuesday, July 3, after a three-week recess.

     

  • Mayhem at NASS complex as Police fire teargas at CATBAN protesters [VIDEO]

    Mayhem at NASS complex as Police fire teargas at CATBAN protesters [VIDEO]

    The Police have gone violent on protesters as officers attached to the National Assembly on Tuesday shot teargas at citizens who are protesting at the National Assembly (NASS) complex.

     

    TheNewsGuru reports the citizens, under the umbrella body of Citizens Action to Take Back Nigeria (CATBAN) stormed the NASS complex on Tuesday morning wielding placards in protest.

    CATBAN protest in Abuja, demand to see legislators [Photos]

    They stormed the complex to protest what they describe as unnecessary budget cut of major projects in the 2018 Budget.

    The CATBAN protesters were demanding that the NASS gate be opened so they can see the legislators, before the Police officers shot teargas at them.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BkxKjnZH1MH/?taken-by=thenewsgurung

     

    Developing story…

     

  • CATBAN protest in Abuja, demand to see legislators [Photos]

    CATBAN protest in Abuja, demand to see legislators [Photos]

    Citizens Action to Take Back Nigeria (CATBAN) is presently holding a protest at the National Assembly over what they describe as unnecessary budget cut of major projects in the 2018 Budget.

    The #CATBANProtest is demanding that the NASS gate be opened so they can see the legislators.

     

    Details shortly…

     

  • 2019: Melaye attacks Buhari over NASS comment, says ‘it is unpresidential’

    Lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Senator Dino Melaye on Thursday criticized President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement insisting that some lawmakers were being paid for doing nothing.

    The lawmaker resumed at the Senate plenary on Thursday and maintained his seat at the Peoples Democratic Party row in the chamber, despite being an All Progressives Congress member.

    Melaye also raised a point of order to describe President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent comments against the National Assembly and its members, saying it is “not presidential.”

    He noted that the President’s body language towards the National Assembly was the reason why the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, and heads of ministries, departments and agencies often refuse to answer invitations by the lawmakers.

    ‎The President had, on Tuesday, attacked the National Assembly members at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while receiving members of the Buhari Support Organisation led by the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (retd.).

    He said, “Let anybody come and confront me publicly in the National Assembly. What have they been doing? Some of them have been there for 10 years. What have they been doing?”

    Melaye, however, described Buhari’s comments as “un-presidential and derogatory.” ‎He also faulted Ali for leading an electoral campaign for the President’s re-election, even as a public officer.

    The lawmaker stressed that comptroller-general is a rank, and that any occupant of the office should be in uniform.

    President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, ruled that the lawmakers would not allow political activities by public officials.

  • Dino Melaye: Resume plenary on Wednesday even on crutches

    Senator Dino Melaye has been charged to resume plenary on Wednesday even on crutches as the National Assembly has been said not to feel the same without him.

    Senator, representing Bayelsa East in the Senate, Ben Murray-Bruce, who made the charge with an early morning tweet via his official Twitter handle on Monday, said Melaye should resume in whatever condition he is.

    “I want Dino Melaye to come to the Senate on Wednesday even if he is on crutches,” he tweeted.

    TheNewsGuru reports the Kogi West Senator has been away from the red chambers following his travails after allegations emerged he was involved in certain crimes.

    Following efforts by the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) to address his case, the Senator jumped from a Police moving van conveying him to Kogi state; but he landed in hospital instead.

    He has been arraigned, granted bail, and recuperating, but his colleagues want him back at the Senate sooner than later.

    “The Nigerian Senate is not the same without Dino,” Murray-Bruce stated in his tweet.

    “We miss him. I know he is on crutches but I want him to come on Wednesday and I will stand with him,” he added.

     

  • NASS members notorious for bribe seeking- Jega

    A former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, has accused members of the National Assembly of seeking for bribes to carry out their constitutional duties.

    Speaking while delivering the year’s Democracy Day lecture at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, on Monday, Mr Jega said he has “spoken to quite a number of chief executives who complained of high demand for bribes from members of the National Assembly in the name of so called oversight functions.”

    The professor of Political Science, told the gathering, including President Muhammadu Buhari, Senate President Bukola Saraki, Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen and other top government personalities that “some chairmen of committees at the National Assembly are notorious for seeking for bribes.”

    Details soon

     

  • Presidency confirms receipt of 2018 Budget from NASS

    Presidency confirms receipt of 2018 Budget from NASS

    The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Sen. Ita Enang, on Friday confirmed receipt of the 2018 Appropriation Bill passed by the National Assembly (NASS).

    The NASS had on May 16 passed the 2018 Appropriation Bill of N9.12 trillion.

    The budget was increased by the legislature by N508 billion from the N8.61 trillion proposed and presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the NASS in November 2017.

    Enang, in a statement in Abuja, said he had received the 2018 budget passed by both chambers of the NASS and was set to be transmitted to the president for further action.

    “I have received the 2018 Appropriation Bill for onward transmission to the President as soon as possible.

    “Since the Appropriation Bill has been received, what is left is for it to be transmitted immediately to the President,” he said.

     

  • Buhari entitled to opinion on performance of NASS members – Reps

    The House of Representatives on Wednesday said President Muhammadu Buhari is entitled to hold an opinion regarding the performance of National Assembly members.

    The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas, stated this while briefing reporters on Wednesday in Abuja.

    Namdas was reacting to Buhari’s uncomplimentary comment about the National Assembly in Abuja on Tuesday.

    Buhari had come down hard on the members of the National Assembly.

    He also said unlike the previous administrations, he made the highest provision for capital projects, N1.3 trillion in the budget he took to the Assembly.

    “Let anybody come and confront me publicly in the National Assembly. What have they been doing?

    “Some of them have been there for 10 years. What have they been doing?” he asked.

    According to Namdas, as for the president’s remarks, ”we believe that the president can hold an opinion as regards the performance of individual members of the national assembly”.

    “In fact, our constituents have been doing just that – members of the national assembly have been replaced by their constituents as a result of such opinions.

    “However, we want to believe that the president was not questioning the role of the National Assembly as an institution of democracy because that will be a worrying sign that our democracy will be in peril.”

    Meanwhile, on the 2017 budget, Mr Namdas said that the budget was meant to run for 12 months and that nobody had been short-changed.

    “Off course, we had passed this budget earlier, and I can tell that the level of performance will not be here at the moment.

    “The budget is a law; even, this 2018 budget that was just passed by the national assembly, we stated clearly that it should run for 12 months.

    “So, even if we had passed the budget earlier than now, it cannot take effect until we amend that aspect of the 12 calendar months,” he explained.

    The lawmaker also commended the president for last year’s budget and the 2018 Appropriation Bill, saying that he put N1.2 trillion for capital.

  • 2018 Budget: Why NASS includes additional funding for Primary Healthcare

    Senator Lanre Tejuoso, Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, has revealed why the National Assembly, included funding for the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) in the 2018 Appropriations Bill.

    In a press statement delivered to newsmen in Abuja, Senator Tejuoso stated that: “While the Executive did not include the BHCPF in the 2018 Appropriation Bill submitted to the National Assembly, the Senate embarked upon a phenomenal task of ensuring the inclusion of BHCPF in the 2018 appropriation and its effective implementation.

    “The Senate mandated its Committee on Appropriation to work out a modality for accommodating the Fund in the 2018 appropriation. The Senate Committee on Health through the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the Legislative Network on Universal Health Care (UHC) held series of sensitization, capacity building and media parleys to galvanize support towards implementation of the BHCPF and reiterate the commitment of the National Assembly towards the cause.”

    Tejuoso added that the push to ensure that there was increased funding in the 2018 budget was a clear demonstration of the commitment and responsiveness of the 8th Senate, under the leadership of Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, the Senate President, who is also a medical doctor, to ensure that the healthcare needs of Nigerians are met.

    “I am happy to inform you that the Senate President and the Senate Committee on Health have lived up to their promise to Nigerians by including the BHCPF in the 2018 Appropriation Bill. By this important milestone, we have demonstrated our collective and sustained will to harness and align our human and other resources towards transforming the health landscape in Nigeria.

    “We have to remain vigilant to ensure that nothing scuttles our collective will towards actualizing the dream of affordable universal health care for all Nigerians. It is my vision that one day, Nigeria health care system will be a model for other African countries and the country will be a reputable destination for medical tourism,” the Senator representing Ogun Central said.

     

  • Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege appears before Senate in plenary

    Senator representing Delta Central Senatorial District Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege on Wednesday appeared before the Senate in plenary.

    The News Agency of Nigeria correspondent reports that Omo-Agege was seen signing the attendance register within the upper chamber.

    The Senate on April 12, suspended Omo-Agege (APC-Delta) over a “dissenting comment’’ on decision of the Upper Chamber on adoption of conference report on Electoral Act (2010) Amendment Bill.

    Omo-Agege, however went to court to challenge his suspension and the court in its ruling, declared the action unconstitutional, saying that the Senate could not suspend a member beyond 14 days.

    The Senate appealed the ruling but said in a statement that while it was waiting for a stay of execution, it would not stop the lawmaker from resuming plenary.

    Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, of Federal High Court on May 10, held that while the National Assembly had the power to discipline its erring members, the premise on which Omo-Agege’s suspension was anchored was illegal.

    Although the court refused to grant any of the seven prayers sought by the senator, ‎it held that the suspension could not hold on grounds of the “violence” it did to the Constitution.

    The judge noted that from the wording of the report of the Senate’s Ethics and Privileges Committee which recommended Omo-Agege’s suspension, he was punished for filing a suit against the Senate after apologising to the legislative house over the allegation leveled against him.

    “Access to court is a fundamental right in the Constitution, which cannot be taken away by force or intimidation from any organ,” the judge ruled.

    The judge also added that the Senate’s decision to punish Omo-Agege for filing a suit against the Senate and for punishing him while his suit was pending constituted an affront on the judiciary.

    He added that even if the Senate had rightly suspended the senator, it could only have suspended him for only a period of 14 days — as prescribed in the Senate rules.

    He also ruled that the principle of natural justice was breached by the Senate’s Ethics and Privileges Committee by allowing Senator Dino Melaye, who was the complainant, to participate in the committee’s sitting that considered the issue and also allowed him to sign the committee’s report.

    The judge therefore nullified Omo-Agege’s suspension “with immediate effect.”

    He also ordered that the senator be paid all his allowances and salaries for the period he was illegally suspended.