President Buhari on the Economic Management Team

Reps. ask FG to release funds to Team Nigeria

The House of Representatives on Wednesday asked the Ministry of Finance to immediately release funds to the sports ministry so that it could mobilise Nigeria’s contingent to the forthcoming Rio Olympics.

The Rio Games will start August 5, but the House expressed shock on Wednesday that Nigeria had yet to mobilise its team to the global sporting fiesta to be held in the Brazilian city.

A member from Kano State, Abubakar Nuhu, who sponsored a motion on the development, told the House that the report of Team Nigeria not being mobilised was sickening.

Nuhu said a serious country’s team would have been going through vigorous camping with just weeks to the Games and not the unsavoury news of no funding.

Lawmakers, on listening to Nuhu, directed the Minister of Sports, Mr. Solomon Dalung, to liaise with his Minister of Finance colleague, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation as well as the Budget Office of the Federation to ensure that the funds were released urgently.He noted that part of the problem seemed to be “the challenges associated with the availability of foreign exchange which may also affect the level of preparations.”

The House said Nigerians would not accept any excuses that the team failed to excel in Rio due to lack of funding.

The motion secured the support of all members present at the session, which was presided over by the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara

FC not negotiating with Niger Delta Avengers --Says why

The Federal Government on Friday explained why it has refused to engage in talks with the militant Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, in order to get them to put an end to the bombing of oil and gas infrastructure in the oil-rich region.

Speaking while delivering the second foundation lecture of Elizade University, Ilaramokin, Ondo state entitled “The Future is here earlier than we thought”, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said that the militants are not freedom fighters but economic warriors who are fighting for their own private pockets.

He declared that “the so called avengers are not freedom fighters but fighting for their own economic benefits. They are avenging for their private pocket and that is why government is not talking with them.”

While condemning the activities of the militants who claimed responsibility for the vandalization of oil pipelines in the region, the Vice President stated that the Federal Government has concluded arrangements to tackle the menace of pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta region.

He went on to state that “the previous government neglected the region for several years, hence the current challenges in the region. The Federal Government has however put machinery in motion to curtail the activities of Niger/Delta Avengers”.

Osinbajo, while lamenting that the activities of the avengers were responsible for the epileptic power supply in the country, noted that state governors are unable to pay workers’ salaries as a result of the low revenue generated in the oil sector caused by the attack on pipelines.