Presidential Adviser Enang apologises to senate over AGF row

Ita Enang, senior special assistant to the president on legislative matters (senate), has apologised to the senate over the comments of the representative of the attorney-general of the federation at a meeting with the committee on judiciary, human rights and legal matters.

Tendering the apology while fielding questions from journalists in Abuja on Friday, Enang said it was wrong for Okoi Obono-Obla, representative of the attorney-general, to have said that the senate had no right to have invited Abubakar Malami, attorney-general.

Enang was a member of the senate in the seventh assembly.

“I heard the statements after and I want to apologise to the distinguished senate, to the committee on judiciary and to the distinguished senators,” he said.

“That statement ought not to have been made: the attorney-general is attorney-general of the federation, appointed by Mr President, cleared by the senate and responsible to the federation.

“We are going into this matter, we will handle this matter but I first have to tender my unreserved apology for the impression it may have created to the distinguished senate, senators and the committee members.”

On Tuesday, the senate summoned Malami to appear before its committee on judiciary, human rights and legal matters to explain why he charged Senate President Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu, his deputy, to court for alleged forgery.

The AGF was represented by Obono-Obla, special assistant to the president on prosecution attached to the federal ministry of justice.

The committee then walked Obono-Obla out of the chamber, saying: “Our invitation is for the AGF and not you. So, we cannot listen to you. We will report back to the plenary for us to take decision on this.”

Obono-Obla, who spoke to journalists while leaving the senate chamber, said the alleged forgery suit against Saraki and Ekweremadu, is not an internal affair of the senate.

“The senate had no right to invite the AGF… the AGF is not answerable to the senate,” he had said.

But Enang said the issue would be resolved, explaining that Malami was unavoidably absent.

“The attorney-general spoke with me yesterday on the matter in the morning that he is on official assignment on behalf of the country,” he said.

“When he is in, we will make arrangement for him to respond appropriately: we want to apologise pending when he is back to respond appropriately.”

Comments

Understanding Prof. Yemi Osinbajo - Abraham Ogbodo

Abraham Ogbodo I am trying to understand Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Often, he speaks out of character. That is, he talks as if he is Vice President before he is a professor of law, even when I know that the latter comes first. The man wasn’t like this when he was the attorney general of Lagos State and a teacher at the Law Faculty of the University of Lagos. Then, his statements were measured and as a seasoned lawyer, based on facts. But today, Osinbajo is sounding like Adams Oshiomhole, a union leader, who by the grace of God, became governor of Edo State for eight years. The revelations about big thefts in the economy had come more from Adams than even Ibrahim Magu, chairman of the EFCC. It was Adams who said former petroleum minister; Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke alone stole 13 billion British pounds from the national treasury. That is like saying she stole in raw cash almost twice as much as the entire fortune of Alhaj...

FG borrows N3.38bn To Aid Potato Production in Plateau

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) wednesday approved N3.38 billion to boost the production of potatoes in Plateau State. The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who made the disclosure said the money would be borrowed from Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) with one per cent interest rate and 25 years moratorium. The minister who said the loan was not fresh, explained that it had previously been cancelled by the federal government with the intention to make a fresh request for the loan on behalf of Plateau State which she said was responsible for 95 per cent of potato production in the country. According to her, following ADB’s comprehensive programme on potato production in Plateau State, 100,000 families and 17 local government areas of Plateau State would benefit from the loan while 60,000 jobs would be created by the initiative. “My approval was on behalf of Plateau State to support the potato value chain. There is a loan that we had previously cancelled from ...

Much ado about the foreign reserves - Nonso Obikili

I have received a lot of questions about the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) foreign reserves recently. The CBN has of course been touting the reserves growing from a low of about $24bn to the approximately $42bn it is now. The questions typically centre around why we are keeping so much in reserve when the economy is struggling, and we have poor infrastructure? Why don’t we use the reserves to reduce the poverty that is rampant? The question typically betrays a little bit of misunderstanding over what the foreign reserves are and how the entire thing works. Hopefully, after reading this we will have a better understanding of what it is and what it can and can’t be used for. First, what is the “Foreign Reserves?” It is the amount of foreign exchange that the central bank has at its disposal at any point in time. Some of this is in cash and some in other liquid assets, that is assets that can quickly be turned to cash. Some of this is in US dollars but sometimes it’s in other c...

ATTENCAO

Search This Blog