House Members Plan N36m Donation to IDPs

Seek resuscitation of Osogbo Steel Rolling Company
Budgets of NIMASA, NNPC, CBN, others pass second reading

Damilola Oyedele in Abuja
All 360 members of the House of Representatives have resolved to contribute the sum of N100,000 each from their July salaries to assist in alleviating the plight of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-east.

The decision to contribute the N36 million followed a motion sponsored by the Chairman of the Committee on IDPs, Hon. Sani Zorro, who also sought the formulation of a national policy on IDPs.

Zorro lamented that over 50,000 children in the camps were malnourished due to poor feeding, adding that the inhuman conditions they deal with, lack of food, medical care, water and sanitation, increases the threat to their lives.

He called for the appointment of a substantive Commissioner for Refugees, and IDPs and the deployment of a sustained humanitarian protection and assistance protocol for an effective, efficient and verifiable supply of food and non-food items to the IDPs in the North-east.

The lawmakers also called for the resuscitation of the Osogbo Steel Rolling Company (renamed  Kura Integrated Steel Mill Limited), and Nigeria Machine Tools, both located in Osun State, which have remained redundant since their privatisation in 2006.

The House yesterday also resolved to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate why both companies are yet to commence operations since the privatisation process was completed.
Hon. Oluwole Oke (Osun PDP) in a motion, lamented that both companies  have not been operational, despite the undertakings made by the private investors to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) that the assets will be put into maximum use and will be fully operational.

The redundancy, he added, has made thousands of Nigerians lose their jobs.
“The failure of the private investors is jeopardising both the economy and security of the country as the premises of both companies are now inhabited by criminals, and huge tax revenue is being lost by both the federal and Osun State Government,” Oke added.

The House also passed through second reading the 2016 budgets of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),  Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) , Nigeria Customs Service  (NCS)  and  34 other agencies and corporations.

The sum of N39 billion was appropriated for NIMASA, N15.1billion for the NNPC, N420.7million for the Central bank,  N81.2 billion for Customs and N150.9 million for NPA.

Some of the other agencies include Nigeria Communications Communication (N70.6 billion appropriation), National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (N7.2 billion) National Broadcasting Corporation (N1.8billion), Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (N7.7billion), Nigeria Immigration Service (N1.8 billion) and Federal Mortgage Bank (N81.1billion).

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