News In Brief Today - 31/3/2016

News in Brief replaces News headlines....

1-‘300 Abducted Children Still Missing One Year After’

-Human Rights Watch has asked  government to take urgent steps to secure the release of about 400 women and children, including at least 300 elementary school students, abducted a year ago by Boko Haram from Damasak town in Borno State.

The group said though the Damasak incident is the largest documented school abduction by Boko Haram militants, it has drawn far less public attention than the infamous abduction of 276 schoolgirls from a government secondary school in Chibok in April 2014.

Nigerian researcher at Human Rights Watch, Mausi Segun, said, “Three hundred children have been missing for a year, and yet there has not been a word from the Nigerian government,” adding that the authorities need to wake up and find out where the Damasak children and other captives are and take urgent steps to free them.

2- Police Seal Off Kogi House Of Assembly

-Moving to stem the escalation of the crisis  in the Kogi House of Assembly, the National Assembly yesterday effectively suspended its legislative functions when the police sealed off the chamber in Lokoja, the state capital.

The federal legislature embarked upon this course under the auspices of Section 11 (4) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, which states that the National Assembly could take over the functions of any state assembly in a crisis.

The development was as a result of an earlier directive by the National Assembly after some days of dilly-dallying due to an unresolved leadership crisis in the house.

3-Budget Details Out In Two Weeks

-Denying that its position on the 2016 budget is politically motivated, the National Assembly yesterday assured the nation that the details of the fiscal plan would be released in two weeks.

The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Dr. Abdulmumini Jibrin who addressed journalists at the National Assembly complex said it was unfair to accuse the federal lawmakers of politicising the issue relating to the passage of the budget.

4-Presidency Is Yet To Get Budget Details

Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, House of Representatives, Suleiman Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila, has confirmed that the presidency is yet to get the budget details.

Sumaila in a statement made available to The Guardian said there was nothing awkward in the delay to transmit the budget details.

Jibrin who said details of the 2016 budget were being worked upon and would be made available to the presidency within the next two weeks, stated that the 2016 budget was as good as a law notwithstanding the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari was yet to assent to it.

5-How Govt Plans To End Fuel Crisis As Black Market Booms

As the nation looks up to next week to end the perennial fuel scarcity, as promised by the Federal Government, indications have emerged that the International Oil Companies (IOC) are set to support the downstream sector through a way of foreign exchange ( forex) provision.

The IOCs are major upstream oil and gas operators. But reports showed that they are now indicating interest in the downstream fuel supply crisis and are ready to help the marketers secure forex for fuel importation.

6-Taribo Blames Eagles’ Failure On ‘Maltreatment’ Of Keshi, Oliseh

Former Super Eagles defender, Pastor Taribo West, has accused those running the nation’s football of being only interested in what they get from the game and not how the game would grow.

Taribo told The Guardian yesterday that those managing Nigerian football have no clear agenda and vision on how to take the game to a higher level.

“We are reaping the fruits of bad administrators we have as leaders of our football,” Taribo told The Guardian. “These people have no agenda and no good vision on how top manage our football. What they are really after is whatever that will come out from every game for them to take to their bank accounts. They don’t want to see some of us who are professionals around them. They preach politics in whatever they do, which is not supposed to be.

7-Nasarawa Discovers 1,600 Ghost Workers On Payroll

The Nasarawa State Government has  discovered over 1,600 ghost workers on its payroll following the recent biometric data capture in the state.

Mr Idris Yakubu, the Executive Director (North), Skye Bank Plc, the consultancy company for the exercise, disclosed this on Wednesday in Lafia while presenting the report to Gov. Umaru Al-Makura.

8-Don’t Waste Your Fuel Coming To Protest…I Won’t Resign – Kachikwu

Minister of state for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of NNPC, Ibe Kachikwu, as part of his closing remarks while briefing the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) on the lingering scarcity of petroleum products across the country  says all

those planning to storm Abuja to stage a protest calling for his resignation should save their fuel as he will not be resigning. He said he still has a lot of work to do.

“All those planning to come to Abuja for a

protest should save their fuel, I am not going to resign, I have a lot of work to do,”

9-President Buhari Is Yet To Sign 2016 Budget

Seven days after the Senate passed the 2016 budget, President Buhari is yet to sign it into law as the senate has reportedly failed to send

details of the budget to the presidency.

According to Premium Times, the National Assembly members sent only the highlights of the budget to the presidency and kept the details in their custody. The presidency had last week said Buhari will only sign the budget into law if he has scrutinized every detail in the budget. The source added that President Buhari was anxious

to give assent to the budget but that he was concerned that signing the budget without details may give approval to an un- implementable spending plan.

-The Guardian

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