News headlines for the 10th of March 2021.

Parliamentary workers issue six-day ultimatum on financial autonomy

The Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria has issued a six-day ultimatum to the National Assembly and the 36 state assemblies to implement a two-year-old Executive Order 10 or face total shutdown of the legislative arm of government across all tiers of governments.
Members of the association from the 36 states of the federation issued the ultimatum when they gathered at the National Assembly complex to register their grievances over the non-implementation of the executive order that denied the state legislatures their financial autonomies.
The workers action led to the immediate closure of the National Assembly main gate by the security operatives for about two hours.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, has deployed policemen to beef up security around the cold store where the COVID-19 vaccines are kept in the Ikeja area of the state.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, said in a statement on Wednesday that Odumosu, after inspecting the cold store, cautioned members of staff at the cold store to prevent unauthorised access to people who are not permitted on the premises of the store.
The police boss, however, directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Operations, DCP Ahmed Kontangora, to deploy adequate police personnel to the facility and ordered the Area Commander, Area F, ACP Ali Zongo and Divisional Police Officer, Ikeja, CSP Taiwo Oyewale to personally supervise the men detailed to provide security for the staff and the vaccines accordingly.

The Spokesperson for the Senate, Dr Ajibola Basiru, on Tuesday, denied speculations that Senators and Members of the House of Representatives may be unable to sit for the mandatory minimum 180 days, due to a cash crunch in the National Assembly.
He explained that the speculation was off the mark because legislators were not being paid sitting allowance to attend plenary.
Basiru said this while speaking to reporters in Abuja. He was responding to a story published by a national daily, that the legislature has resorted to holding plenary once a week due to financial constraints.

THE Nigerian Labour Congress will today hold a nationwide protest over moves by the National Assembly to remove the national minimum wage from the exclusive to the concurrent legislative list.
The congress in an invitation to journalists on Tuesday said the protest would hold in the 36 states’ Houses of Assembly and at the National Assembly in Abuja.
It added that the protest would start from the Unity Fountain, Abuja, at 7.30 am to the National Assembly complex.
Recall that a bill seeking to remove the negotiation on minimum wage from the exclusive list to the concurrent list passed the second reading in the House of Representatives on February 23.
According to the sponsor, Garba Mohammed (APC Kano), the bill is to allow both the federal and state governments to freely negotiate minimum wage “with their workers in line with our federalism.

President Muhammadu Buhari will on Thursday inaugurate the N16 billion newly-completed office complex of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) which work started in 1996.
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Godswill Akpabio, announced this while briefing newsmen in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
Akpabio said that the building which started in 1996 witnessed slow pace of work until 2019 when President Buhari committed to its completion.
Akpabio said that although the building had been completed he would still meet with the Federal Executive Council to approve contract for the furnishing of the entire office space.
He berated past administration and NDDC boards who rather than focus on completion of the office building preferred to pay N300 million yearly to rent its old office.
The minister pointed out that after the inauguration the ministry, National Assembly and other stakeholders would meet to re-jig the operations of the NDDC.
Akpabio further added that part of the discussion would be focused to embarking on major regional projects in the nine Niger Delta states.

Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo of the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday refused to vacate its interim order directing 20 banks to block Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited and its subsidiaries’ accounts.
Justice Oguntoyinbo made the order on January 25 following AITEO Eastern E and P Company Limited’s ex parte application in suit no FHC/L/CS/52/202 seeking to recover the cash value of more than 16 million barrels of crude oil allegedly diverted by the SPDC from AITEO.
Other respondents in the suit are Royal Dutch Shell Plc; Shell Western Supply and Trading Ltd; Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Ltd; and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Ltd.
The judge had directed 20 banks to ring-fence any cash, bonds, deposits, all forms of negotiable instruments to the value of $2.7bn and pay all standing credits to the Shell companies up to the value into an interest yielding account in the name of the Chief Registrar of the court.
The Chief Registrar was to “hold the funds in trust” pending the hearing of the motion and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction filed before it by AITEO.