Nation
Senate Summons AuGF Over Unaudited Immigration’s Account
The Senate Committee on Finance has summoned the Auditor General for the Federation, Mr. Adolphus Aghughu, to appear before it on Tuesday.
The AuGF is expected to explain to the panel, reasons his office had not given guidelines for the auditing of the accounts of the Nigeria Immigration Service since 2017 despite repeated letters from the NIS requesting the guidelines.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee, Senator Solomon Adeola, gave the directive when the Controller General of Immigration, Mr. Mohammed Babandede appeared before the panel, yesterday.
The committee is currently investigation the alleged poor remittances of internally generated revenues and the 1 per cent Stamp Duty on all contracts by the ministries, agencies and departments of the Federal Government into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Mr. Victor Muruako, had told to the committee that his agency had not received the audited accounts of NIS since 2017.
He said the action was contrary to the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007, among other infractions.
In his response, Babandede stated that there have been no guidelines from Auditor General’s Office despite repeated official requests from the NIS.
He added that the Minister of Interior had, however, launched a probe into the unaudited accounts of the NIS.
The Immigration boss further disclosed that the revenue generating operations of the agency is under a public-private partnership arrangement.
Babandede said he inherited a sharing formula agreement that cannot be readily renegotiated or cancelled in the foreseeable future.
He said the development had left the agency to remit only about 20 per cent of revenues generated to the Federal Government.
Adeola, therefore, directed the Immigration boss to furnish the committee with a comprehensive account of its revenue and the sharing in specific terms as well as details of the partners in the PPP deal.
The senator said the committee intended to interact with the partners in presence of the Immigration.
He said, “There is the need to seriously interrogate the PPP arrangement and its duration as it seems to be an unending denial of needed revenue for Nigeria.
“A situation where partners collect 70 per cent, leaving Immigration and Federal Government to share 30 per cent over unending period of time, is looking more like a ‘pick pocket partnership’ arrangement for Nigeria that should be remedied,” he stated.
The chairman said with the experience of Nigeria on the PPP arrangement concerning the issue of passport and other immigration documents, there was the need for the National Assembly to come up with legislation to guide and regulate such partnerships as the present ad hoc system was short-changing the Federal Government.
The Alliance Française Port Harcourt in conjunction with the Embassy of France Nigeria over the weekend joined the globe to campaign against the 2025 gender- based violence (GBV) with the theme: “16 Days of Activism Against Gender- Based Voice”
The event which took place at the event Hall of the Alliance Française Port Harcourt was in collaboration with the Female in Gaming Network, ( FIGN) and partnership with Nexal a body that seeks to promote online safety and responsible digital behaviour.
The Tide reports that the project which was aimed at promoting digital safety and girls inclusion in Gaming, with the initiative tagged ‘Gameover Gender- Base Violence’was part of the global campaign against gender- based Violence.
The activity which experienced a flavour of festivity was full of fun and excitements as participants took part in tournaments on popular digital games such as Mario kart and EAFC 25, with an intent to creating safer and more inclusive digital spaces.
The Director of the Alliance Française Port Harcourt, Mrs Marina Lacal said that these activities were designed to encourage inclusion of girls, team work and fair play on online gaming spaces, saying that the gaming world reflects these inequalities, where female players are often under represented.
According to her the main objectives of the initiative was to provide a supportive environment for girls and female in gaming network.
“GameOverGBV” is a project created to reshape this landscape by offering an innovative inclusiveness of girls on online digital Gaming community and digital environments that provide opportunities for creativity, learning and connection, but also fight against Gender-Based Violence Digital Gaming,”she said
She however, explained that the Digital Game, sport competitions, was launched to strengthen social and digital skills through games, workshops, and raise awareness among all young participants about respect, equality and digital citizenship.
The Tide News reports that in Port Harcourt, the competition brought together 100 young participants from three major universities: University of Port Harcourt, ( UNIPORT),Ignatius Ajuru University of Education(IAUE) and Rivers State University (RSU)as well as students from four selected secondary schools, Oginigba comprehensive Secondary.School, Vine lnternational, Virgo predicanda lnternational, and Excellent Montessori Secondary school.
“This is an approach where girls and boys can learn, play and collaborate in a more respectful and safe space for young women, while ensuring a safe, enjoyable and respectful digital environment. It also expose young women to cyberbullying, exclusion, sexist comments and online hate,” Mrs. Lacal said.
Earlier, a game developer Sophia Nei and her. team had engaged participants in an interactive session with the theme: “Can Video Games Be Safe Spaces For Girls?”
However, Mrs Nei and her team educated the girls on the benefits and violence on online digital gaming and urged them ( participants)to learn to say ‘No’ to Online hate, sexist and cyber bullying, while encouraging them(students) to stand up for themselves by reporting such issues to the appropriate authority.
Highlight of the competition was the awarding of prizes to winners by the Director of Alliance Française, Mrs Marina Lacal.
