Reps Bow To Jonathan, Approve N98.4bn Virement

Barely four weeks to the end of the year, the House of Representatives yesterday did a turnaround on their refusal to grant President Goodluck Jonathan approval for the virement of N98.4billion in the 2011 budget as the bill unanimously scaled through second reading on the floor of the House of Representatives.

It will be recalled that when the proposal was first presented to the lawmakers in October, it was vehemently opposed as they argued that the request was coming too late and that the funds which were released earlier in the year had not been properly utilised, talk less of a release made so close to the end of the year.

The virement is from 9 ministries: Niger Delta Affairs; Federal Capital Territory Administration [FCTA]; Agriculture and Rural Development; Education;? Police Formations and Commands; Justice; Aviation and Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development.

Highlights of the virement included N25,676,910 for maintenance of horses; N29,068,200 for maintenance of dogs; N10,658,340 for maintenance of police band; N995,524,472 for fuelling of motor vehicles, with additional sum of N1.08 billion for vehicle/transport; N945,540,000 for local travel and transport; N484.47 million for electricity bill; N1.944 billion for uniforms and other clothings as well as N520.33 million for stationery/computer consumables and N137.394 million for food stuff/catering material supplies in the Nigeria Police budget.