*PDP blast APC Govs, ministers on Benue massacre
By Chesa Chesa and Samuel Ogidan
The National Economic Council (NEC) at its first meeting for 2018 presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday, constituted a 10-man working committee to address the resurgent killings in Benue and other states allegedly by Fulani herdsmen.
NEC comprises of the governors of the 36 states of the federation, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Minister of Budget and National Planning and his counterpart in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The conflict resolution committee, headed by Osinbajo, has the Governors of Kaduna, Zamfara, Taraba, Benue, Adamawa, Edo, Plateau, Oyo, and Ebonyi States as members.
Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State and his Ebonyi State counterpart, Dave Umahi, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, which lasted over four hours at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja.
Ganduje stated that the panel would collaborate with the Federal Government in addressing impunity regarding killings and violence, and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
The council also approved the resolution of the 59th National Council on Health that at least between 0.5% to 1% of the monthly allocation to states be earmarked for financing the implementation of the HIV/AIDS sustainability roadmap.
According to Umahi, this followed a presentation by the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole and the Director-General of NECA, Olusegun Oshinowo, urging the council to consider an update for increase in domestic funding of treatment of persons living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.
Umahi said that the minister of health also presented an emergency situation on Lassa Fever especially in Ebonyi State where some health workers died from Lassa fever last week.
The council was also given an update on the nationa��s Economic Recovery Growth Plan.
Ganduje disclosed further that NEC was also given Federation Account balances. He said that the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, reported that the balance in Excess Crude Account as at 15th January, 2018 stood at $2.317 billion, Stabilisation Account: N9.730 billion, Natural Resources Development Fund was NN115.108 billion
*Benue Killings: APC Govs, ministers are hypocrites – PDP
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has lambasted the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors and ministers over their silence on the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari to visit Benue State during the killings of Nigerians in the state by bandits.
The party described the governors and the ministers as hypocrites, adding that same people who, in 2013, unleashed insults on the PDP and its administration for allegedly delaying in visiting Borno State at the heat of insurgency, have lost their voices now that Buhari has refused to visit Benue, Taraba or Kadnuna to condole with the people.
The PDP, in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, called on Nigerians to note that neither the APC governors nor any federal delegation had visited Benue, Taraba or Kaduna since the senseless killings and the traumatising mass burial of the victims.
“It is unfortunate that the same APC leaders, who heavily criticized the PDP and wrongly accused it of staying away from troubled parts of the country, have become dumb under President Buhari in spite of his daily failures in governance and heartrending indifference to the plight of Nigerians.
“Today, Nigerians are heartbroken to realize that those they thought were patriots and messiahs never had any iota of goodwill towards them,a�? he said.
Osinbajo heads Govt C'ttee to end killings
