The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, who was one of the strong opponents of the fuel subsidy removal in the past, has given reasons why he along with some others are in support of it now.
Gbajabiamila, in an open letter to Nigerians, said based on the facts and figures presented to them by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachukwu, at the meeting where the decision was taken on Wednesday, if the subsidy was not removed, Nigeria would be in an “economic cul-de-sac” and that many states would practically stop functioning.
The House Leader, who in 2010 wrote an open letter to the then acting President Goodluck Jonathan, “vehemently opposed any attempt to remove subsidy,” said this time around, he was “confronted with a gloomy picture.”
He said during the 2012 subsidy debate, he had “argued vociferously and with a strong conviction, that the idea of palliatives was irrelevant as the palliative measures proposed by the government then such as infant mortality, child care, transportation etc were things that belonged to citizens as of right and which government under Chapter 2 of the Constitution were obligated to provide and therefore government was in no way doing Nigerians a favour.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday interrogated former Governor of Akwa Ibom State Godswill Akpabio over allegation of financial crimes. Daily Trust gathered that Akpabio honoured the invitation by the anti-graft agency to explain allegations of looting of the state’s funds during his tenure. Sources told our correspondent that Senator Akpabio was being interrogated late yesterday evening at the Abuja head offices of the Commission. He was spotted at the EFFC office in company of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Rickey Tarfa, at about 5:20pm. Akpabio’s arrest yesterday is fallout of the petition by an Abuja-based lawyer and activist, Leo Ekpenyong, who had on June 8 this year petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari and the EFCC, calling for Senator Akpabio’s probe and accusing him of looting. The petitioner had earlier on Wednesday adopted his petition and provided more details to the anti-graft agency on the allegations against the minority leader of People...
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