By Emman Ovuakporie

At last, APC and PDP members in the House of Representatives, on Thursday, buried their differences and approved the 2014 budget proposals.

This came five months after the Presidency laid the budget for legislative deliberations on December 18,2013. The APC had vowed to block all executive bills.

The lawmakers, however, on Tuesday, after a three-hour closed door meeting, buried their differences and endorsed it on Thursday. While briefing journalists, Hon Zakari Mohammed, the House spokesman, said”despite all the political polarisation that engulfed the House, we decided to put the interest of Nigerians first. “

”The budget has been passed and the MDAs now have eight months ahead to fully implement the budget”.

Hot air over kerosene
The Chairman, House C’ttee on Downstream Sector, Petroleum Resources, Hon Dakuku Peterside, threatened to blacklist companies involved in the hoarding of kerosene.  Peterside dropped the warning at the resumed investigative hearing on the supply, distribution and subsidy expenditure on kerosene between 2011 and 2013.

He said,”If a company deliberately misleads the nation, we will not hesitate to ask that the   company   be blacklisted and prosecuted.

”We are not here to witch hunt anybody but to help the country. One thing that is not in dispute is that  there no kerosene anywhere. You sign everyday   receipts of the product but how it develops wings and flies away is what we don’t know,” the lawmaker told one of the cargo inspection companies, Marine Technical Services Limited, while making presentation at the hearing on Wednesday.

The company, through its Executive Director, Bankole Ogunsoya, denied involvement in superintending the importation of either the House Hold Kerosene (HHK) or the Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK), and that neither was it involved in the ship-to-ship transfer of the products in the period under investigation. He said it operates at the Apapa petroleum jetty, and only superintended allocations to major oil marketers.
On what may account for the differential in the declared imported quantity of the product and the discharge, Ogunsoya and representatives of other inspection firms separately blamed the development on flashpoint of the product, and the subsisting temperature and humidity.

Duplication of Bills
It is a common practice in this 7th Assembly to watch lawmakers on the floor of the House step down bills billed for second reading   due to duplication.

Hon Victor Ogene’s sponsored bill tagged: ‘A Bill for an Act to authorise for free Pre-Natal and Post-Natal Health Services to every Nigerian Woman Pregnant with Child in every Government Hospital’ was stepped down due to duplication.

Ogene had barely finished his presentation when another lawmaker stood up to say a similar bill had been presented six months ago.

The presiding officer, Hon Aminu Tambuwal, was forced to step down the bill and he directed the Chairman of Rules and Business, Hon Sam Albert-Tsokwa to look into the matter and report back to the House. Duplication of bills has become a regular feature in this Assembly.

What are fishermen doing in the House?
Apparently disturbed   about the loss of their livelihood due to the effect of Shell’s Bonga oil spill, the umbrella body for fishermen in the country, Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria, has asked the House of Representatives to push for compensation by Shell, the company whose field the spill allegedly came from.

The fishermen demanded for N433million to alleviate the problems the oil spill had caused since they stopped fishing.

The association, led by a non governmental organisation, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth(ERA), said, while telling the lawmakers on Tuesday their plight after the spill, that no effort had been made to address the effect of the spill on their livelihood.

The spill affected four states: Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Ondo and Rivers. The delegation told the legislators that they had been facing untold hardship since the spill after National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, asked them to vacate the sea due to  alleged contamination from Bonga field. Chairman of the association, Bishop Godknows Nefipre, said, “We want you to talk to Shell and NOSDRA to look at the plight of artisan fishermen numbering over 35,000 across the five impacted states…we are here to ensure that the right things are done at the right time no matter whose ox is gored”.

Responding, the lawmakers, led by Hon. Kingsley Chinda, assured the delegation that they will take up the matter with the relevant committees.