THE ongoing battle against insurgency in the
North-East, as well as the battle against the spread of the Ebola virus are top
of the Senate agenda as the lawmakers resume today.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and
Business, Senator Ita Enang, who stated this in an interview in Abuja, said the
senators will immediately consider the request of President Goodluck Jonathan
for a loan of $1 billion to secure weapons to fight insurgency.
He also said the Senate will be looking for
the best way out of the current threat of an outbreak of Ebola virus in the
country.
The senator, in an interview with Senate
correspondents in Abuja, on Monday, said the lawmakers were also expecting
the president to send in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) that
would guide the process of the 2015 budget.
He stated that the National Assembly would
take up the report of the just-concluded national conference, in accordance
with due legislative practice.
According to him, the National Assembly would
await the president’s decision on aspects of the report that demanded
legislative action.
He also said that the Senate would give
priority attention to the request of the president for police funding reforms
and align such request as contained in a recent letter with constitutional
provisions.
“Today, we can say that as we resume, we will
consider the health challenge that is facing the country, the way it is
handled, the way forward, particularly the Ebola question, it cannot be
unnoticed, it will be addressed by the Senate.
“Also, the request from Mr President for $1
billion loan will be laid on the order paper for consideration by the Senate,”
he said.
On the confab, he said “when it comes
from the president, we will address it in the normal legislative process, but we
cannot speak on a matter which we are yet to receive, because we do not know
the form, time and the character it will come. As of today, I am not aware that
we have received it.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman, House of
Representatives Committee on Rules and Business, Honourable Albert Sam-Tsokwa,
has asked President Jonathan to beam his searchlight on the spending of
Ministry of Defence and Defence headquarters.
This, he said, was as a result of growing
insecurity in the North-East, despite trillions of naira budgetted for security
sector in the country.
This came as the lawmaker impressed it on the
executive arm of government to ensure that the 2015 budget was submitted to the
National Assembly between now and first week of October, saying that “2015 is
an election year and it will not be in the interest of Nigerians that the
budget is passed late.”
The lawmaker, while expressing worry over the
activities of Boko Haram insurgent in the troubled zone, on Monday, asked the
president to investigate the spending of the military, in order to know the
true position on the state of the nation.
Speaking ahead of House resumption today,
Sam-Tsokwa noted that “the House of Representatives has a pact with Nigerians,
based on its legislative agenda and I want to assure them that we will keep
fate with the legislative agenda.”
He added that “the Boko Haram members are
nonentities,” querying why they were having an upper hands.
“Let the president do an in-house search, but
certainly, there are enemies within,” he stated.
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