News In Brief Today 18/05/16

Good morning! 

New titbits you need to know this morning:

1. Despite the Tuesday court order stopping the NLC from proceeding on strike over the recent hike in pump price of fuel, labour leaders have vowed that the Wednesday action will continue as planned. This decision was arrived at after a meeting between the Federal Government and Labour ended in a deadlock and representatives of labour walked out of the meeting.

2. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has seized the passport of a former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode who has been in their custody since Monday last week for receiving N840m in the last presidential election from the former President, Goodluck Jonathan.

3. If things remain the way they are, then the Peoples Democratic Party may hold two national conventions on May 21. This follows the decision of another faction on Tuesday to go ahead wiith its convention on the same date the party under the leadership of Ali Modu Sheriff has picked for its own national convention, which will hold in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

4. There are reports that the Federal Government may have sacked the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, Martin Abeshi. Reasons for his sack have not yet been made public.

5. A defence witness in the case involving the embattled National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, Mr. Colet Odenigbo, has maintained. that Metuh sought to know the source of the N400million he received from the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA but no tangible explanation was given to him.

6. Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo has said that the fuel hike from N86.5 per litre to N145 can be traced to the scarcity of dollars occasioned by the depletion of the foreign reserve which resulted from long years of corrupt practices.

7. Following the public outcry that greeted the anti-social media bill, the Senate at a plenary on Tuesday suspended all further consideration on the bill. The decision follows the report of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters which recommended for its withdrawal as it contradicts all extant laws.

8. The main prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Mr. Michael Wetkas, Tuesday told the Code of Conduct Tribunal on that Saraki bought a property worth N375m in London in 2010 which he did not declare. Wetkas, while being cross-examined by defence counsel, Mr. Paul Usoro (SAN), said that the Senate President neither declare the London property nor the liability of the loan in his asset declaration form submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau at the end of his second term as governor in 2011.

9. Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday voided the congress held last Saturday by the South-West zone of the Peoples Democratic Party. According to the judge, the congress was held against a restraining order made by him on May 11, 2016, where he held that the court firmly stand in support of its own order to prevent litigants from turning court cases into a of game of chess.

10. The Federal Government has released about N13bn to the National Youth Service Corps to assist the agency to pay the outstanding allowances of corps members. The NYSC, with this development, can now proceed with the mobilisation of prospective corps members in the country.

New in brief by dailypost