Daily Watch – PDP Senators walk out over Amaechi, Buhari admits some economic hurt in ‘short term’
30th October 2015
- PDP senators walked out of the upper chamber to protest against the approval of ex-Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, as a minister. The Senate in plenary on Thursday considered the report of its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions and confirmed all in the last batch of 18 ministerial nominees, including Amaechi. The PDP senators had been opposed to the screening of Amaechi on the grounds that the ex-governor’s fraud suit in the court needed to be dispensed with before the Senate could touch his case. The majority APC senators had however gone ahead to screen Amaechi on Thursday last week amid protest by the opposition PDP lawmakers, who later vowed to stop the approval.
- Reviewing his administration’s economic policies, President Buhari has admitted that they may be hurtful “in the short run”, but insists that in the long run, things will be better. The President was speaking in New Delhi, India, where he is attending the Third Indian-Africa Forum. He was addressing the Chief Executives of Indian companies with interests in Nigeria. Despite the fall in oil prices, his administration, he said, remained committed to maintaining macro-economic stability and improving investors’ confidence in Nigeria.
- FBN Holdings Plc, the parent company of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, on Thursday confirmed to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had paid the sum of
N1.877 billion as fine to the Central Bank of Nigeria for violating the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account policy. FBN Holdings, in a letter addressed to the Director-General, SEC, Mr. Mounir Gwarzo, said the confirmation was in response to media reports on the fine. The CBN had a few days ago fined First Bank and United Bank for Africa a total sum ofN4.819 billion for concealing funds belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. - The Nigerian Communications Commission has given MTN Nigeria until November 16 to pay a
N1.04 trillion fine for failing to disconnect unregistered SIM cards. Speaking to AFP, Tony Ojobo, the NCC’s spokesperson said, “The deadline set for the payment of the fine is November 16. The key issue is if MTN breached the law or not. Certainly, there was a breach. And if there is a breach, we will apply the law.”