Economy
2021 Budget: Senate Committee Querries Justice Ministry Over N2bn Proposal for Legal Services
The Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, on Monday drilled officials of the Ministry of Justice over N2 billion it proposed to spend on legal services in 2021.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, Solicitor-General of the Federation, Dayo Akpata, and other officials of the ministry appeared before the committee to defend their 2021 budget proposal.
In the document submitted to the committee, the ministry under overhead cost proposed that the sum of N2 billion would be used to pay for legal services.
It listed the legal services to include civil litigation, prison decongestion, trial and prosecution of Boko Haram, administration of criminal justice system and payment for international legal obligations.
Sen. Ajibola Basiru, a member of the committee, and Chairman Committee on Media and Publicity said that the N2 billion proposed for legal services was not clear enough to avail auditors at the committee for the purpose of exercising its oversight functions
“We need to know how much is being projected for civil litigation, for prison decongestion and all other items in that regard.
“Also, there appear to be an overlap with what has been provided for the sum of about N2 billion for generated items under overhead cost and some of the items listed as capital expenditure.
“For instance, there is provision of N350 million for administration of criminal justice in Page 4. What is the relationship between that N350 million budgeted and the projected sum under the heading of legal services in the overhead cost proposal?
“The same thing with the issue of prison decongestion. If you look at the capital expenditure proposal, the sum of N380 million was highlighted for prosecution of prison inmates and decongestion of correctional centres nationwide.’’
Responding, the Solicitor-General, Akpata said that the proposed N2 billion would be used for civil litigation.
He said that the amount was “a tip of the ice berg of what it intends to do’’ on civil litigations and cannot be compared with what it is now saving from government.’’
“Presently, the last performance we had, we saved more than N600 billion because we now do cases in-house.
“So, part of this N2 billion is essentially to get the lawyers because all the cases are spread among the 36 states.
“The trial and prosecution of Boko Haram: you will recall that in 2019, we had to create a jurisdiction, a division in Kanji Dam in which 3, 000 inmates were prosecuted.
“How do you prosecute 3, 000 inmates in a place? We had to bring four judges from the Federal High Court, and pay the legal aides.
“When we look at the N2 billion, its a tip of the ice berg of what it intends to do.
Presently, there is a camp in Maiduguri where we are going for another prosecution. This is what the N2 billion is going to do. So, there is no overlapping.
“When you now look at the specific activities of the N2 billion, they are separate and distinct from what you think.’’ (NAN)
NNL/EEE
The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) continued its bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining N183 billion.
Accordingly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N59.532 trillion, gained N184 billion or 0.31 per cent to close at N59.715 trillion.
The All-Share Index also added 0.31 per cent or 303 points, to settle at 98,509.
68, against 98,206. 97 recorded on Tuesday.Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return increased to 31.
74 per cent.Gains in Aradel Holdings, Zenith Bank, United Bank For Africa(UBA), Oando Plc, Nigerian Breweries among other advanced equities drove the market performance up.
Market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 17 losers.
On the gainers’ chart, Africa Prudential, Conoil and RT Briscoe led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, N352 and N2.42 per share, respectively.
Golden Guinea Breweries followed by 9.95 per cent to close at N7.18, while NEM Insurance rose by 9.74 per cent to close at N10.70 per share.
On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N155.25, Secure Electronic Technology Plc trailed by 9.52 per cent to close at 57k per share.
Multiverse lost 7.63 per cent to close at N5.45, Haldane McCall dropped 6.07 per cent to close at N4.95 and Honeywell Flour shed 5.62 per cent to close at N4.70 per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 49.44 per cent.
A total of 320.10 million shares valued at N6.48 billion were exchanged in 7,943 deals, compared with 939.41 million shares valued at N12.81billion traded in 9,098 deals posted in the previous session.
Meanwhile, ETranzact led the activity chart in volume with 70.27 million shares, while Aradel led in value of deals worth N1.22 billion.(NAN)
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the Yuan, weakened 22 pips to 7.1870 against the dollar on Monday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the Yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the Yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
Arewa Youths Initiative for Energy Reforms (AYIFER), has urged Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to do everything possible to bring Kaduna Refinery back into operation.
National Coordinator of the group, Mr Bashir Al’Amin, stated this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.
Al’Amin specifically called on the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, to do all within his powers to rejuvenate the refinery and bring it up to global standard.
He said that having delivered the Port Harcourt refinery, coupled with the establishment of Dangote Refinery in Lagos, attention should be shifted to Kaduna refinery for easy spread of petroleum products.
“We are calling on Malam Mele Kyari to expedite action on Kaduna refinery so we can be at par with other regions in the country.
“We equally beg the NNPCL to do professional work in rehabilitating the old refinery and deliver a standard and functional petrochemical refinery and not a blending plant.
“Kyari should resist any temptation that could make him do something that can jeopardise his good image,” he said.
Al’Amin said that since the extinction of groundnut pyramid and textiles in Kano State as well as PAN in Kaduna State and with the Kaduna refinery getting moribund, a lot of youths had lost their jobs.
According to him, all their hopes in the north are tied to the legacy refinery, expressing the hope that God would use Kyari to deliver it well and on time.
He said that the group was solidly behind NNPCL in prayer and would be ready to celebrate the company if its expectations were met. (NAN)
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