Senate removes president's power, seeks immunity for members

Senate removes president's power, seeks immunity for members – Newspaper Review

Mainstream Nigerian newspapers of Thursday, July 27, are focused on six Peoples Democratic Party governors’ visit to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Senate’s decision to strip presidency of some power.

Punch reports that the Senate, on Wednesday, voted on the proposed amendments to the 1999 Constitution during which the lawmakers rejected devolution of power to the states.

At its plenary in Abuja, the lawmakers rejected the alteration of the Second Schedule, Parts I and II of the Constitution to move certain items to the Concurrent Legislative List to give more legislative powers to states.

The proposed amendment on power devolution was to also “delineate the extent to which the federal legislature and state assemblies can legislate on the items that have been moved to the Concurrent Legislative List.”

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The Punch Newspaper for Thursday, July 27

The Guardian reports that the six state governors who visited President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday at Abuja House, the official residence of the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, kept mum after meeting the ailing leader.

The governors, who arrived around 2:50 p.m., left about an hour later, looking morose and refusing to utter a word when The Guardian asked for the outcome of their meeting with Buhari.

They deliberately parked their vehicles at the entrance of the house to prevent reporters from seeing who was seeing them off, but it was still possible to observe that, though they were smiling with the president’s aides as they came out of the house, the president was conspicuously absent from the door to see the governors off.

The Guardian Newspaper for Thursday, July 27

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The Nation reports that Ebonyi state Governor Dave Umahi last night described the recovery of President Muhammadu Buhari as “a miracle” given reports on his health in the social media. He said the social media portrayed the President’s health as “bad”.

The Nation Newspaper for Thursday, July 27

Vanguard reports that the Kano Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has recovered a sum of N328,988,296,990.62 from nine major oil marketers across the country.

The amount represents the cost of products the companies collected from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiary, Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, PPMC, but refused to pay as and when due.

Vanguard Newspaper for Thursday, July 27

Meanwhile, This Day reports that Osinbajo’s decision not to assign the new ministers portfolios was deliberate, as the acting president was only acting on the instruction of President Muhammadu Buhari who was said to have instructed him to only swear them in without assigning them portfolios.

It was learnt from a senior presidency source that when Osinbajo visited the president early this month in London, where he is receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment, he had sought Buhari’s permission to swear in the two ministers, assign them their portfolios and reshuffle the cabinet.