The Director-General of the Consumer Protection Council, Mrs. Dupe Atoki yesterday blamed the ineffective use of the Council’s enabling legislation on the flagrant display of impunity by businesses and multinationals in the country. Atoki while addressing members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) at the mentorship and business development programme in Abuja said the council was able to reduce the level of consumer abuse and in curbing the excesses of business owners and multinationals with the prosecutory powers of the Council’s Act.

ABUJA —There is hope for Nigeria that it will soon draw down $480 million (N153.6 billion) looted by fraudulent Nigerians and warehoused in the United States of America.

In a Presidential system of government, political theorists have long propounded that separation of power is the chess game at the political arena. It is a known fact that the executive, the legislature and the judiciary act as checks and balances on each other in the system. In budgeting, while the executive proposes the budget, the National Assembly has the responsibility to debate and pass the budget into law for the executive to implement.

After a successful hosting of the Tombim tennis open in Abuja, the Nigeria Tennis Federation, (NTF) over the weekend began yet another round of a two-week tennis championship known as Dayak Open.

President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed shock over the death of Walin Sokoto, Ambassador Hamzat Ahmad, who passed away.

ILE-IFE— The Federal Government is set to hit another gold mine in the solid mineral sector, which has potentials to fetch the nation about N5 trillion annually, if adequately harnessed.

ABUJA — THE 10-man committee set up by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on 2016 budget is still working on the grey areas that caused the delay which made President Muhammdu Buhari to withhold his assent. A source privy to this development told Vanguard: “We’re working round the clock to ensure that before midnight today (Sunday), all the differences have been properly ironed out. Immediately we achieve this, we’ll transmit it to the executive arm for the President’s assent.”

BARACK Obama was a phenomenon when he turned to politics. His Presidential victory seemed assured that July 24, 2008 day he stood in a street to address over 200,000 Germans in Berlin, in the “Victory Column Speech”. It was a trip to Europe to test if the young Democrat had the presidential stuff to lead the world. He electrified the audience painting a picture of a new world, a new partnership and a new direction towards peace. He displayed the rarity of a genius.

SOMETIMES when you examine the way things are done in this country, especially at the level of government, you get this feeling that Nigeria is a huge circus stage where acts of inanity are elevated to high art in the name of leadership.

ASABA—THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, ward congresses held weekend, were free of rancour in Delta State. A cross-section of PDP faithful in the state who spoke to Vanguard, separately, said the exercise was the most peaceful in the history of the party in the state.

The leadership of organised Labour Unions, last week presented a new demand for N56,000 monthly minimum wage, to the federal government. The President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comrade Ayuba Wabba told a news conference in Abuja, that even though it is true that the economy is not doing well, but the law has stated that wages for workers must be reviewed after every five years”.

Digital hydro advertising seems to have died in Nigeria along with Late Managing Director of Spot-On Media, Sesan Ogunro. Since his demise, no ad agency has been able to replicate or repeat the feat exhibited at the Marina waters by Falomo Bridge, Ikoyi, Lagos, first of its kind in Africa.

The protracted debt reconciliation problem between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and domestic airlines has brought to the fore once again the popular view, or what is almost becoming a fact, that government ministries and parastatals do not keep proper accounting records of financial transactions they engage in.

The report failed to explain in details what it meant by depoliticisation neither did it allude to the long-drawn battle between the executive and the legislative arms of government.

PORT HARCOURT—Four persons have been confirmed dead by the Police in Ula Upata community, Rivers State, after suspected cultists stormed the area, Saturday night, shooting sporadically.