NEWSPAPER REVIEW: Missing Budget, Chibok Girls Protest & Lassa Fever Dominate Front Pages

Nigerian major newspapers today, January 15, focused on the alleged missing budget in the National Assembly, the Chibok girls protest and lassa fever endemic. 

The Senate on Thursday, January 14, accused the executive of smuggling copies of a doctored version of the 2016 Appropriation Bill into the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

According to The Punch, the Senate stated this while discussing the report of its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, which it set up to investigate the alleged disappearance of the budget.

The Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, after a two-hour executive session with his colleagues, explained that the upper chamber deliberated extensively on the report of the committee behind closed doors.

The Punch front page today

The Senate accused the senior special assistant to the president (Senate), Senator Ita Enang of doctoring and circulating fake copies of the budget proposals.

In defence of its integrity, the Senate vowed not to work on the fake proposals allegedly circulated by Enang until it receives an electronic copy of the budget document which will be reproduced for senators.

Vanguard also learned yesterday that the same alteration of the budget document was done in the House of Representatives, but House officials were quick to intercept the doctoring and insist on the circulation of the original proposals as submitted by the president.

Vanguard front page today

According to Daily Sun, Saraki said: ”We have received the report of the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions on investigations surrounding 2016 Appropriation Bill. Our finding is that Senator Ita Enang, the SSA to the president on National Assembly Matters printed copies on the 2016 Appropriation Bill and brought to the Senate.

”We have discovered that what he brought is different from the version presented by Mr. President. We have resolved to consider only the version presented by Mr. President as soon as we receive soft copies of the original document from the executive,” Saraki noted.

The Senate adjourned sitting immediately and is expected to resume next week Tuesday, January 19 to begin the consideration of the budget, subject to the availability of the hard copies.

Daily Sun front page today

Meanwhile, The Nation reports that Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaign leader Dr Oby Ezekwesili yesterday led members of the group and parents of the abducted Chibok Secondary School girls on a protest to the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The group was received by Minister of Women Affairs Hajia Aisha Alhassan, Minister of Defence  Brig. Gen. Dan Ali, National Security Adviser Babangana Monguno and Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Gabriel Olonishakin, at the old Banquet Hall of the State House, Abuja.

But the group decried the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari to receive them at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Although th president later granted them audience.

The Nation front page

In another development, a medical doctor in Rivers state has been confirmed dead after being diagnosed of Lassa fever in the state’s apex hospital, the Brewaithe Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMH), Port Harcourt.

According to The Guardian, the situation caused panic within the hospital as some patients were seen fleeing the facility with their belongings.

Investigations revealed that the doctor, whose name was undisclosed as at press time, was one of the health officers that attended to the victims.

The Guardian front page today

 

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