Today's Headlines: Clear El-Rufai, Okotete as Ministerial Nominees APC Support Group urges Senate., FG's Reliance On Borrowings Must End-BAT
Clear El-Rufai, Okotete as Ministerial Nominees APC Support Group urges Senate.
Photo credit: Vanguard
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Support Group has urged the Senate to clear the former Governor of Kaduna state, Ahmad Nasir el-Rufai and Mrs Stella Okotete without delay saying there is no justification whatever for their action.
The support group led by Engr Jator Abido, Prince Danielson Momoh, and Comrade Chinedu Livinus, called on the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene in the avoidable scandal involving Senate President Senator Godswill Akpabio and some security agencies in the just concluded ministerial screening.
Recall that the President had recently transmitted to the Senate a list of 48 ministerial nominees to be screened by the Senate.
However, on the 7th of August, 2023 and after a rigorous screening, the Senate announced that it has screened and cleared only 45 of the nominees, leaving out three nominees including Stella Oketete from Delta State and Ahmed El-Rufai from Kaduna State under the guise of a security report.
The APC Support Group described the action of the Senate as unjust and wondered why the Senate President would choose to work against his party’s interest.
FG’s reliance on borrowings must end — Tinubu
Photo credit: Vanguard
President Bola Tinubu yesterday vowed to end Nigeria’s over-reliance on borrowing to finance public spending. He made the vow at the inauguration of the presidential committee on fiscal policy and tax reformsNigeria’s total public debt rose sharply by 501 per cent in the nation’s total debt in eight years to N72.55 trillion in March 2023, from N12.06 trillion in March 2015, a development driven by increased borrowing, worsened by the global pandemic and economic recessions in 2016 and 2022.
Data from the Debt Management Service, DMO, shows that the N75 trillion total public debt comprises N19.64 trillion of foreign debt, N30.21 trillion of domestic debt and N22.7 trillion of Ways and Means lending to the Federal Government by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
Furthermore, the country spent N3.36 trillion to service debts in 2022, representing 14.68 per cent increase from N2.93 trillion in 2021.
While the country spent N1.07 trillion to service its external debts, it expended N2.56 trillion to service domestic debts.
Court fixes Aug 30 for judgment in Matawalle’s suit against EFCC.
Photo credit: The Cable
A federal high court in Abuja has fixed August 30 for judgment in a suit filed by Bello Matawalle, former Zamfara governor.
The ex-governor is seeking to restrain the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from probing him.
The Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria police force, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), EFCC and the attorney-general of the federation, are the first to sixth defendants in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/753/2023.
Matawalle argued that there is a subsisting judgment of a federal high court in Gusau restraining the anti-graft commission from prosecuting him.
Matawalle said Amina Aliyu, the judge, delivered the judgment in a suit marked FHC/GS/CS/30/2021 on May 31, 2023.
He said the judge held that the EFCC or any other authority asides from the Zamfara state anti-corruption commission “have no authority or power to arrest or prosecute him on the basis of any investigation, report or allegation bordering on any alleged corrupt practices/financial crimes against the plaintiff or his administration as governor of Zamfara”.
Fire guts warehouse in 3-storey building in Onitsha
Photo credit: The Guardian
On Tuesday, a fire gutted a warehouse in a three-storey building at No. 64 Venn Road in Onitsha, Anambra.
This is contained in a statement signed by the Director/Fire Chief of Anambra Fire Service, Mr Martin Agbili, on Wednesday in Onitsha.
Agbili said the Anambra Fire Service received a distress call of a fire outbreak in a three-storey building at No 64 Venn Road by Sanish in Onitsha at about 9:46 p.m. on Tuesday.
“We immediately deployed our fire trucks and our diligent firefighters to the scene of the fire.
“The cause of the fire is unknown and no life was lost.
“The fire partly affected the building and affected the goods at the ground floor, as many vacuum flasks in the warehouse were destroyed”, he said.
Agbili said that his men were able to control the fire from spreading to other buildings around.
Photo credit: Google
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