Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, on Wednesday, met with the President of the Republic of Chad, Idriss Déby.

The meeting, which held at the Presidential Palace in N’Djamena, was also attended by the Chadian Ambassador to Nigeria, Abakar Chahaimi, as well as the Nigerian Ambassador to Chad, Zannah Kolo.

According to a statement titled, ‘Zulum meets Chad’s President Deby over thousands of Borno refugees’, Zulum said the meeting was convened over the repatriation of Nigerian refugees who fled to Chad after they were displaced by the terrorist group, Boko Haram.

The statement quoted Zulum as saying, “I am here in Chad to see our people currently taking refuge at The Darsalam camp in Baga Sola.

“We met them yesterday (Tuesday). Our people are doing very well, the Government of Chad is taking care of them. So, I am here to express appreciation to the President for his generosity towards our people here in Chad.”

The Borno State governor also said efforts are on to bring back those who are willing to be safely resettled in different parts of Borno.

“Before today’s meeting with the Chadian president, Zulum crossed over the Lake Chad on Tuesday to the refugee camp in Baga Sola, interacted with citizens, and supervised the distribution of N50 million to 5,000 families as part of social protection,” the statement added.

It was earlier reported that following the killing of 43 rice farmers by Boko Haram members in November, the governor made six recommendations to the Federal Government to defeat the insurgency.

The recommendations included the engagement of the services of the governments of Chad, Cameroon, and Niger Republic as well as the services of mercenaries to defeat the Boko Haram terrorists.

Zulum had also recently received a delegation of the Cameroonian military at the Government House in Maiduguri, the state capital.

The National Assembly announced on Wednesday that it would hold an emergency session on Monday next week to consider and pass the 2021 Appropriation Bill before proceeding on its Christmas/New Year break on the same day.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, who announced the development at plenary on Wednesday, said the delay was to accommodate fresh demands from the executive arm of government regarding the fiscal document.

The Federal Government had on Tuesday, written the National Assembly to demand a fresh review of the 2020 Appropriation Act.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, particularly asked the National Assembly to extend the expiration date of the capital component of the 2020 budget

Lawan told his colleagues that the Parliament resolved to take certain legislative decisions in order to ensure the January to December budget cycle.

He said, “There was a late request for some more expenditure from the executive arm of government and we want to ensure our committee produce a very clean document so they can’t present this report today.

“However, they (the committee) said the report will be ready by weekend.

“Consequently, the Senate will hold a special session on Monday 21st of December, just to consider and pass the budget 2021.

“This is in keeping with our legislative agenda of ensuring that annual budget has January to December cycle.”

The Caretaker/ Extra-Ordinary National Convention Planning Committee of the All Progressives Congress has appointed a former National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, as chairman of its South-South reconciliation committee.

The decision was announced in a communique signed by the Secretary of the committee and an APC Chieftain from the region, Lucky Imasuen, after a meeting of party leaders from the geo-political zone in Abuja on Tuesday. The communique was made public on Wednesday.

Other members of the committee include: Lucky Imasuen who was named as secretary; Chief Sunny Jackson, Dr. Mrs. Maryam Ali, Dr. Sam Jaja, Senator Clever Ikisikpo and Chief Emmanuel Nsan.

The communique read in part, “The meeting applauds Mr. President for the tremendous work he is doing under very difficult circumstances. Consequently, a vote of confidence was passed on the administration of president Muhammadu Buhari.

“The meeting resolved that leaders must work together in harmony in the interest of the party and our people

“The meeting condemned the divisions amongst the leaders and urged on the need to foster unity in the zone.

“The meeting resolved to set up a committee of six persons of integrity to handle reconciliation and issues from the various states.

“The meeting called on leaders to use the membership revalidation, and update exercise as a tool for ramping up our support base and for unification of the party in the region.”

Party leaders at the meeting also reiterated the resolution of the National Executive Committee of the party asking all members who had pending litigations against the party and or its leaders to withdraw them from court.

Two federal lawmakers from Rivers State who defected from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party to join the APC were also formally received during the meeting.

The two members of the Federal House of Representatives: Chisom Dike and Ephraim Nwuzi, representing Elemetai, Oyigbo and Etche and Omuma federal constituencies respectively, were welcomed into the party fold as they promised to work hard towards the growth and success of the party going forward.

The House of Representatives has asked the Federal Government to extend the deadline for the provision of National Identification Number by telecommunication service subscribers to 10 weeks.

The House, at the plenary on Wednesday, described the two weeks given to SIM card users by the Nigerian Communications Commission to provide their NIN to service providers as grossly inadequate.

The Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, had moved a motion of urgent public importance to demand more time.

Adopting the motion, the House resolved that the exercise should end on January 28, 2021, as against December 30, 2020.

The NCC had threatened that SIM cards not linked to NIN issued by the National Identity Management Commission would be blocked.

The motion was titled ‘Need for the Nigerian Communications Commission to Give Nigerians Reasonable Time to Submit their National Identification Number for SIM Registration.’

Moving the motion, Elumelu recalled that in January 2020, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Ali Pantami, issued a statement in which telecoms service subscribers were mandated to get their National Identity Numbers and submit them to the network operators, “with the aim of ascertaining the true identities of all subscribers and thereby blocking loopholes currently being exploited by unscrupulous individuals.”

The Minority Leader said, “The House is concerned that as laudable as the idea behind the policy may seem, the timing is very wrong because Nigerians have not been properly sensitised, as only a few educated persons who bother to read the dailies might have heard about this instructions. Therefore, trying to enforce this policy in a period where most Nigerians are gearing up for Christmas festivities may lead to stampede in the process of rushing to get registered, which could lead to unnecessary death and injuries.

“The House is further concerned that if the NCC is allowed to carry out this directives, it will bring about untold hardship as millions of subscribers will be disconnected this Yuletide period, which could spell disaster in an already volatile nation like ours.

“The House is worried that if the NCC is not urgently called to halt their plans, there may be unnecessary panic in the country which may lead to exploitation of vulnerable Nigerian, thereby causing more pains in an already pathetic situation hence the need to urgently wade into this impending crisis.”

Elumelu prayed the House to resolve that “the NCC should give a reasonable amount of time to enable Nigerians meet with the instruction of submitting their National Identification Numbers to service providers and not the two weeks given.”

Chairman of the House Committee on Telecommunications, Akeem Adeyemi, also backed the motion.

The Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu, however, called for the amendment of the prayer to give the NCC a specific time. He prayed that the deadline should be extended by eight weeks, to February 28.

A member, Julius Ihonvbere, however, asked that the exercise should last one year due to the population that would be in a rush to meet the deadline.

Another member, Uzoma Nkem-Abontaa, who seconded the prayer, said, “One year is reasonable enough…It will be a continuous exercise.”

The lawmakers, however, voted against one year and adopted 10 weeks, when the two prayers were put to voice vote.

Another member, Onofiok Luke, urged the House to mandate all relevant agencies to harmonise the data in their separate databases. He noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria issued the Bank Verification Number; Federal Road Safety Corps, driving license; Nigerian Immigration Service, passport; Independent National Electoral Commission, voter card; and telecoms service providers, SIM registration.

The Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, however, noted that the House already had a bill seeking synchronisation of all biometric data captured by the agencies.

The Federal High Court in Abuja has set aside the conviction and seven years jail term imposed on a former spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh, after finding him guilty of money laundering charges.

A three-man panel led by Justice Stephen Adah in a unanimous judgment, delivered on Wednesday, held that the proceedings of the Federal High Court leading to the conviction of Metuh and his company, Destra Investment Limited, were tainted with bias, and therefore must not be allowed to stand.

Justice Adah, who delivered the lead judgment, held that the utterances of the trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, in the course of the trial, established that he was biased against the convicts.

He, therefore, ordered that trial be conducted afresh.

He directed that the case file be sent back to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for reassignment to another judge other than Justice Abang.

Justice Abang had in his judgment delivered on February 25, 2020, sentenced Metuh to seven years’ imprisonment for fraudulently receiving N400m from the Office of the National Security Adviser then being headed by Col Sambo Dasuki.