2021 Budget: House Gives Committees 24-hour Ultimatum to Submit Reports

• Honours slain vendor shot by speaker’s security aide

By Udora Orizu

The House of Representatives has mandated its standing committees to unfailingly submit their budget defence report to the Committee on Appropriation on or before Thursday.

The Speaker of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, who gave the order at the resumption of plenary on Tuesday, instructed the committees to use the two days to tidy up their budget defence report and submit.

The House had, on October 20, adjourned plenary to November 24 to enable lawmakers have adequate time to hold budget defence sessions with various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

The Committees include Finance, Aviation, Petroleum Upstream and Downstream, Army, Science and Technology, Commerce, Solid Minerals, Health Care Services, Health Institutions, Works and Basic Education.

Others are Climate change, health care services, rural development, agriculture, national security, local content, labour employment and productivity, Niger Delta, National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Agriculture, Labour and Employment, Tertiary Education, Poverty Alleviation and Gas Resources, amongst others.

He appealed to the lawmakers to take it serious so that the House will meet up with its deadline.

Also at the plenary, the House honoured the deceased newspaper vendor, Ifeanyi Okereke, who was last Thursday killed by a security aide attached to the Speaker’s convoy.

The honour followed the invitation of leaders of the Abuja Newspapers Distributors Association (ANDA) and the Newspapers Vendors Association, Abuja (NVAA) by Gbajabiamila.

The Speaker, who reiterated his commitment to ensure the family of the late vendor are well taken care of, asked the lawmakers to observe a minute silent for the vendor.