Senate defers passage of 2019 budget till Aug. 30
By Tunde Opalana, Abuja
The Senate on Wednesday deferred the passage of the 2019 Appropriation Bill to April 30 following the absence of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Sen. Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central) and his vice, Sen. Sunny Ogbuorji (Ebonyi South) to present the committee’s report for consideration.
While urging members to ensure the passage of the budget next Tuesday, Senate President Bukola Saraki said “some members have not got printed copies of the details and I have directed the clerk to make sure that latest by Monday, we all have printed copies so that everybody can see the details of the budget and by so doing we can now pass it on Tuesday.
“We don’t want to run into a problem where we pass it without details and our colleagues will start to comment. So clerk, ensure that everybody has copies of the details by Monday and we will pass it on Tuesday.”
Meanwhile, the Senate has confirmed the appointment of Omolola Abiola Edewor, first daughter of late business mogul, Chief Moshood Abiola as the executive director (Corporate Services) of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
Her confirmation followed the presentation and consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions.
The committee Chairman, Sen. Rafiu Adebayo (Kwara South) urged the Senate to confirm Edewor having performed creditably well during her first tenure on the board of NDIC.
In a related development, the Senate also passed two health bills for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). They are the FCT Health Insurance Agency (Establishment) Bill, 2019 and the FCT Primary Health Care Board Bill, 2019.
