The Federal Government moved a notch higher in its anti-graft war, last night, with a confirmation that it was launching a comprehensive probe into the controversial Halliburton bribery case in which top Nigerian politicians allegedly received huge bribes in the region of N66 billion.

THE Senate has begun the process of issuing a warrant of arrest on the immediate past chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, over his failure to appear before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.

Barely a week after Admiral Alison Madueke (retd) was invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the anti-graft agency yesterday, moved against Mr. Donald Chidi Amamgbo, a cousin of the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.

For the first time late Tuesday night, President Muhammadu Buhari, broke his silence on padding in the 2016 budget proposal currently before the National Assembly, vowing to deal decisively with the masterminds.

Former Minister for Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has described the narratives of her former group managing directors, GMDs, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, with regard to the ongoing legislative probe of the oil swap and OPA deals as fabricated tissues of lies

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP was, last night, teetering on the brink, following the threat of mass abandonment of the party in the wake of the ascension of Senator Ali Sheriff as the new national chairman of the party.

LAGOS—Excess liquidity in the banking system rose to about N1.24 trillion, last weekend, following huge backlog of unmet foreign exchange demand for which the Central aBank of Nigeria, CBN, returned the Naira back-up funds to the banks on Friday.

INQUEST into shady deals in the oil and gas sector is proceeding apace with the arrest and detention of some players in the sector.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, yesterday, invited Alison Amaechina Madueke, husband of embattled former Petroleum Minister, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke.

— Erstwhile chairman of the Board of Trustees of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, and former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff was yesterday chosen to become the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, in a move to douse the tension over the 2016 budget controversy, fired the Director-General for Budget, Mr Yaya Gusau, and announced a replacement in the person of Mr. Tijjani Abdullahi.

THE Senate has warned the Chairman, Northern State Governors’ Forum, NSGF, and Governor of Borno State, Kassim Shettima, against plan by governors of the region to obtain loan from Saudi Arabia.

The Nigerian Airforce High Command stepped up its anti-corruption war, yesterday, with the removal of officers, including Air Officers Commanding, AOCs, fingered in the $2.1billion arms scandal and appointed new officers to replace them.

he two arms of the National Assembly, NASS, declared, yesterday, that the 2016 budget was full of errors, saying the document could no longer be passed on February 25 as earlier promised.

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, weekend, described the fielding of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the last election as a miscalculation by the party.