Reps reject Tinubu’s N4.78bn Yacht, pass supplementary budget

 

The House of Representatives has rejected the N4.79bn budgetary allocation for a Presidential Yacht contained in the N2.176trn supplementary budget for the 2023 financial year transmitted to it on Tuesday by President Bola Tinubu.

In passing the supplementary budget on Thursday, the House moved the sum proposed for the yacht to student loan, bringing the total sum for the scheme to N10bn up from the initial N5.5bn.

Abubakar Bichi, who heads the House Appropriation Committee, stated this while addressing journalists after plenary on Thursday.

“As far as we are concerned, we don’t need the Presidential Yacht anymore. We have increased the student Loan. If you can recall, the student loan was N5 bn in the budget, but now we have increased it from N5bn to N10bn so that our students will be able to access that facility for them to be able to go to school and to be able to afford them,” the lawmaker said.”

Bichi added that the committee increased the budgetary allocation of the Ministry of Defence from the initial allocation of N476bn to N546bn.

According to him, the four-month wage award of N210bn for workers was considered and approved for onward transmission to the President for implementation.

He pledged adequate legislative oversight to ensure 100 percent implementation.

The sum of N100bn was retained for the Federal Capital Territory as requested.

The lawmaker said, “

Today, our committee has submitted our report, and the House after careful consideration, approved our submission and the breakdown is as follows:

“As you know, the budget is about N2.177 trn and the Ministry of Defence has N456bn but currently, they have the largest share because we know how important our security is. As you are aware, we interacted with them yesterday and they requested additional funding so that they can continue their work.

“So, we have increased their budget from N476 to N546bn.”

 

Court Overturns Ganim Win in Bridgeport Primary, Calling Evidence of Fraud ‘Shocking’

 

A Judge ruled on Wednesday to overturn the city’s Democratic Primary Election, initially won by incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim, following claims of absentee ballot fraud by his opponent, John Gomes.

After two weeks of evidentiary hearings for Gomes’s absentee ballot fraud lawsuit, Judge William Clark ordered a new Democratic primary based on 180 pieces of evidence presented by Gomes’s legal counsel.

In the 37-page ruling, Clark said the video footage presented by Bill Bloss – Gomes’s attorney – was particularly alarming.

“Mr. Ganim was also correct to be ‘shocked’ at what he saw on the video clips in evidence that were shown to him while he was on the witness stand,” Clark wrote. “The videos are shocking to the court and should be shocking to all the parties.

Ganim was one the many city officials called to the Fairfield Judicial District Superior Courthouse for questioning, along with Wanda Geter-Pataky, vice chair of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee and operations specialist for the city, and Eneida Martinez, a former City Council member accused by Gomes of stuffing ballot dropboxes.