PDP’s victory and Dino’s recall drama punctuated passage of bills

By Titilope Fadare

 OrderPaperToday – Activities at the Senate this week was largely defined by the excitement generated by the declaration of Ahmed Makarfi as the authentic chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) by the Supreme Court which confined the Ali Modu Sheriff faction to the dustbin of history.

 Supreme Court judgment and shadow boxing over Dino….

 In both chambers of the National Assembly, lawmakers could not contain their joy when they received the news on Wednesdaymorning as even political aides joined in the exultant mood. It was additional joy for PDP senators when Ademola Adeleke got sworn into office to replace his deceased brother, Isiaka Adeleke, as the Senator representing Osun West senatorial district on the platform of the party.

The new energy infused in the PDP caucus by the twin development elicited some drama with senators of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Senator Emmanuel Bwacha (PDP, Taraba), deputy minority leader and the chair of the caucus, Godswill Akpabio, poked some pun at APC by asking PDP senators who had gone into the ‘disapora’ to return home. Leader of Senate, Senator Ahmed Lawan rose up in defence, saying PDP will forever remain in displacement.

 The Senate continued its shadow-boxing with the Kogi State Governor over the latter’s alleged instigation of the recall of Sen. Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi). Though Melaye did not do any of the talking this time, his colleagues in apparent show of solidarity  took turns to vent their anger on the Kogi state governor for allegedly spending tens of millions in paid advertorials to respond to senators. Deputy president of the senate, Ike Ekweremadu (PDP, Enugu) blasted the Kogi governor for allegedly spending N12million on newspaper advertorials to reply his earlier comments on the recall matter and expressed pity for the people of Kogi, saying the money could have been used to pay the backlog of salaries of workers. In the same vain, Senator Akpan Bassey (PDP, Akwa-Ibom) vehemently warned the Governor Yahaya Bello to stop publications of his reactions against Sen. Dino on the pages of national dailies as he also drew the attention of the Senate to advertorials in seven newspapers on the Dino matter.

 Real business of bills as taxation, tourism and sickle cell issues get attention…

 Away from the drama and political intrigues, the Senate settled into real legislative business as the lawmakers passed three bills for second reading – an amendment of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation Act to boost revenue generation in the tourism sector; the Mandatory Hemoglobin – Genotype Testing bill which is aimed at curbing the menace of the sickle cell disease; and Sen. Oluremi Tinubu’s bill on the amendment of the Police Act which seeks to address issues of gender discrimination ranging from age to marriage for women.

Senate also made treatment of gunshot victims compulsory without clearance from the police as they passed the bill for third reading with several others of which were forwarded from the House of Representatives for concurrence. The other bills passed for third reading included; Animal Health and Husbandry Technologies (Registration, etc) Bill, Corporate Manslaughter Bill, National Child Protection and Enforcement Agency Bill, National Intelligence Agency Pension Board Bill, Nigerian Academy of Science Bill and the National Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science Bill.

 Meanwhile, in the quest to make business easy for Nigerians, the Senate passed for third reading avoidance of double taxation bill between Nigeria and the Kingdom of Sweden, Spain and South Korea as well as six other bills. The House of Representatives had sent these bills for concurrence with the Senate and they were presented by the Leader of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan (APC, Yobe) and passed through  a clause by clause consideration.

 TETFund contracts probe, LAUTECH crisis and OANDO/Agip PH refinery concession…

 The Senate on Wednesday mandated its Committees on Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) and Public Procurement to conduct an investigation to ascertain the level of unexecuted contracts with a view to returning monies collected by contractors. This was after Senator Jibrin Barau (APC, Kano) led the motion and disclosed how these contractors ran away without performing such contracts to specification.

 The senate also urged the federal government to take over the crisis-ridden Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso (LAUTECH) which has suffered serious strain under the joint ownership of Osun and Oyo States. Senator Buhari Abdulfatai (APC, Oyo) in a motion lamented the ordeals of 3,000 staff and 34,000 students of the institution owing to constant strike and other issues besetting the institution.

 In order to prevent delayed passage of the 2018 budget, the Senate also ordered all agencies and parastatals of the federal government to submit their budget proposals to the Senate within a week. This is as the Leader of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan (APC, Yobe) drew the attention of the senate on Wednesday to the delays in submission of budget proposals by different agencies bearing in mind that the Senate would soon embark on their summer recess.

 The Senate through its seven- man ad-hoc Committee on Thursday, in a public hearing summoned the Minister of Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu and other stakeholders in a probe of the $15 billion concessioning of the Port Harcourt refinery which saw AGIP/ENI and Oando Plc emerging as the beneficiaries. Kachikwu however denied that the Federal Government has sold the facility to the above companies.