These are the top ten stories that drove conversation this week.
Aisha Wakil said the terrorist group, Boko Haram, are willing to quit their activities.
In a recent interview, Wakil, who is a lawyer, said there was a need to engage Boko Haram in dialogue. She added that their “hearts bleed because of what they are doing” and “they need peace”.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), said the United Kingdom has paid Nigeria the sum of $70 million recovered from the Malabu oil controversial deal.
This is in contradiction to the $85 million which was expected to be recovered from the UK.
In the same manner that we celebrate ‘criminals’ in Nigeria, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus has said the former governor of Delta, James Ibori “must be celebrated.”
A statement by the press office of the Delta State Government quoted Secondus as saying Ibori is a “unifying figure and a blessing to the Niger Delta region”.
He said: “Ibori must be celebrated because he is a man of the people not just in Delta state but across the nation.
“Today, he is a factor in this country. On behalf of the masses of our country, we salute you, we salute your courage because you are a man who believes in the struggle of the party.”
As men of the Police Force grossly disobey orders given by the Inspector-General of Police so, the IGP himself, Ibrahim Idris disobeyed the order from the President.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, on his visit to Makurdi, said he had no idea that Idris flouted his directive to relocate to Benue during the crisis.
The President said he did the needful by ordering the IG to relocate to the state but added, “I did not know that IG did not stay in the state.” In that light, he summoned the IGP to answer a query on why he disobeyed a Presidential order to relocate to Benue following killings in the state.
The President had given the order on January 9 with an aim to check the reported cases of attacks in the state. Idris, according to Governor Samuel Ortom spent only 24 hours in the state.
Still in Makurdi President Buhari said, “I cannot overlook the killings in Benue or any other part of Nigeria. I cannot do that. I am genuinely worried about the attacks in Benue and we are doing everything to end them.”
Senator Shehu Sani (Kaduna Central) who revealed that he and his colleagues receive N13.5 million as running costs monthly apart from their salaries gave reasons why he did so.In an interview with BBC, Sani said, “I decided to burst it open. It was a moral issue”.
He said the National Assembly is being run with little or no accountability about how money is spent.
He also said constituency projects are done fraudulently.
The House of Representatives recalled suspended Abdulmumin Jibrin, lawmaker representing Bebeji/Kiru constituency in Kano.
The house suspended Jibril in 2017 for 180 legislative days after he raised an alarm of the alleged padding of the 2016 budget.
A number of lawyers and civil rights activists in Lagos, marched in protest of some new tax regimes introduced by Akinwunmu Ambode‘s government.
The Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, Adesina Ogunlana said during the protest, “the tax increments by Ambode would cause hyperinflation, encourage crime and hunger“.
“If the governor refuses to stop and reverse all tax increments after our protest, we will go to court,” Ogunlana continued.
That must have led the Lagos State Government to announce a reduction of its Land Use Charge.
This was announced after the meeting of the Lagos State Executive Council chaired by Governor Ambode.
The state government had jacked up the charges payable by 400 percent as enabled by the Land Use Charge Law of 2018.
The blame game continues. Hopefully, it will not turn into an argument this time.
President Buhari, upon his visit to Yobe and the Dapchi school where 110 girls were abducted said that he handled the case of the Dapchi abduction more responsibly than former president Goodluck Jonathan handled the abduction of the over 200 girls from Chibok, Borno in 2014.
“The Federal Government’s response to the unfortunate abduction of the schoolgirls is a clear departure from the insensitivity of the past administration which looked the other way while the Chibok girls were taken away in 2014 and held in captivity for over three years,” President Buhari said.
The Federal High Court, Abuja, presided by Justice Ahmed Mohammed has retrained the National Assembly and other parties to a suit challenging the legitimacy of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2018 taking any steps in relation to the Bill pending the next hearing of the case.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives plans to resend the Electoral Act Amendment Bill to President Buhari for assent.
This time, the areas where the President has issues with will be removed, the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrasak Namdas said.
Nigeria’s total public debt stock stands at N21.725 trillion – as at the end of December 2017.
The Director-General of Debt Management Office (DMO), Patience Oniha, said the Federal Government’s domestic debt at the end of 2017 was N12.589 trillion.
The 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have a domestic debt overhang of N3.348 trillion.
The combined external debt of the Federal Government and the states is N5.787 trillion.
Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram
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