President Muhammadu Buhari has showered encomiums on the Nigerian contingent to the just concluded 2016, Paralympics which was held in Rio De Jenario, Brazil.
Presidential media aide, Garba Shehu, conveyed the president’s message to the paralympians in a statement released in Abuja on Monday.
“President Buhari joins all sports-loving Nigerians in commending the athletes for doing the country proud by winning 12 medals and setting new records, which made them the top-performing African team at the 2016 games,” the statement read.
The President extoled the athletes for their resilient spirit which enabled them to excel in the face of adversity thereby bringing glory to the country.
He also expressed gratitude to all the officials and trainers of the athletes for their sacrifices and perseverance.
Katsina State Comptroller of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, Mohammed Yaro, has disclosed that human traffickers now use motorcycles and donkeys to transport their victims from Nigeria to neighbouring countries in order to avoid being detected by security agents.
Yaro made this known while parading 11 victims of human trafficking who were rescued over the weekend by the state Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service in various border areas of the state.
Seven out of the 11 victims are from Edo State, three hails from Delta State and one is from Kogi State.
Yaro told journalists that the victims were picked up individually on Saturday while attempting to cross over to the neighbouring Niger Republic on their way to Italy without any travelling documents.
He said the NIS was able to rescue them as a result of new strategies adopted by men of its intelligence unit.
The NIS Comptroller would not disclose the border areas where the victims were picked up, insisting that doing so would jeopardise the investigation being carried out by the service to track down the traffickers.
“Our investigation revealed that their mission was to cross border en route Agadez in Niger Republic to Libya and then Italy for so-called employment,” Yaro said.
“It was further established that none of them was in possession of any travel documents.
“It is important to note that the victims were misled by the traffickers whose business is to ferry persons across the border through illegal routes.
“We are, however, prepared to deal with the syndicates. Katsina State will no longer be used as a transit route for human trafficking,” he vowed.
The Presidency will install plagiarism detection software in the computers of its speechwriters to prevent a recurrence of plagiarism in presidential speeches, sources in the State House disclosed.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in his “Change begins with me” speech this month lifted a paragraph from US President Barack Obama’s 2008 victory speech.
The Presidency had apologized for the incident – which it blamed on an overzealous aide – and said it wouldn’t happen again.
Sources said officials in the Presidency have now resolved to take a range of measures to guard against any further embarrassment.
“One of the measures will be to install plagiarism detection software to check speeches before they are delivered by the president,” an official involved in the plan told Daily Trust.
He said they all felt embarrassed by the plagiarism case, even though it was essentially the stupidity of one individual who didn’t envisage the gravity of his action.
When contacted over the planned installation of plagiarism detector, presidential spokesman Garba Shehu confirmed the plan.
He said the Presidency is determined to ensure that a case of plagiarism will never happen again.
He had earlier issued a statement in which the Presidency blamed a deputy director “for the insertion of the contentious paragraph”.
It said: “This serious oversight will be investigated thoroughly and appropriate sanction meted.
“The Presidency wishes to state in the clearest possible terms that it regrets this unfortunate incident and will ensure that this does not happen again.
“President Buhari urges Nigerians to look beyond this incident and focus on the message of change,” the statement added.
Sources told Daily Trust that the deputy director responsible for the incident would be removed from the Presidency.
The case was particularly embarrassing to the Presidency, especially as it came at the time US officials scheduled a meeting between President Obama and President Buhari.
The two presidents are expected to meet on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session.
President Buhari is already in New York to attend the UN session and conduct several other international engagements.
The economic recession in the country has claimed its first set of causalities in the ivory towers as the Federal University, Lafia, has sacked 35 non-teaching staff in what may be the first batch of retrenchment.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Mohammed Sanusi, a professor, who disclosed this to journalists in Lafia, said the sacking of the affected staff was due to lackof funds to pay their salaries.
The affected staff were among those engaged by the university earlier this year comprising of 11 corps members, who were retained after their service year in the school, and 24 others.
Liman said the council had directed the management to source for money and pay off the affected staff since they had worked for over five months without pay.
“It would be inhuman to keep the staff working when we cannot pay them given our poor budget, and that is why the council decided that we should pay them off,” he said.
According to him, the university consistently has a shortfall of over N38 million in her allocation for several months, which has adversely affected the running of the institution.
The VC said the management had uncovered a job racketeering syndicate in the university, which had given illegal employment to some persons.
“When we got wind of the matter, the management set up an investigative committee, which turned in a report that was submitted to the council.
“The university council referred the matter to its disciplinary committee for investigation and appropriate action,” he said.
Abdulmumin Jibrin and Speaker Yakubu Dogara when the going was good
Embattled Kano member of the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin, has denied allegations that he owns and operates a bank account in the United Kingdom.
A group, the National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, had alleged that it traced £1.558 million to an account in the United Kingdom, allegedly owned by the former chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on Appropriations.
The allegation was contained in an e-mail sent to journalists by Ifeanyi Okonkwo, the Head of the Anti-corruption unit of the NYCN.
Jibrin however, denied owning any account in the UK or having anything to do with the address in the e-mail sent by the NYCN.
In a series of tweets on Monday, the lawmaker said the report was just the handwork of mischief makers who are bent on foiling the anti-corruption campaign he had initiated against speaker Yakubu Dogara and three other principal officers of the house.
He stated: “My attention has been drawn to a widely circulated report that I own an account with ING bank UK with Essex address and balance of £1.3m.
“The document is FAKE; I DO NOT own such account or balance neither do I have anything what so ever to do with the said address at Essex.”
The Kano state lawmaker said the report was “part of a wider propaganda arranged by the desperate Speaker Dogara through his Deputy Chief of Staff Hon CID Maduebum.”
He also alleged that Maduebum recruited and paid N20 million to one Okonkwo and Ugochinyere “to do the hatched jobs.”
“Ahead of resumption of the House, they are back at work to divert attention from allegations of budget fraud and corruption against Mr Speaker.
“The plan is to create credibility problem for me as I release more revelations on Mr Speaker that will send shock down the spines of Nigerians,” Jibrin said.
He vowed to ensure that the allegations were investigated, saying that “my lawyers are taking the necessary legal actions. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”
The NYCN had claimed that documents obtained from the UK revealed that Jibrin allegedly “owns and operates the said account domiciled in ING Bank Channels Island, United Kingdom.”
Part of the letter sent by the NYCN read: “The bank is located at Forum House, Grenville Street, St-Heller, Jersey JE2 4UF, Channels Island United Kingdom.
“Jibrin opened the account with his address at 453 Crank brook Road, Ilford Essex IG2 6EW.
“Details of the account statement obtained by some lawyers in the UK show that Jibrin has a total £1.558m (approximately N825m) in the account between June 1, 2016 and June 30, 2016.”
Okonkwo in the letter claimed that Jibrin had withdrawn £623.44 pounds within the one month period bringing the balance in the account to £1.376, 193.84 British pounds.
“Jibrin’s ownership of foreign account contravenes the provisions of the 1999 Constitution which bars public officers from owning and operating foreign account,” he added.
Paragraph 3, Part one of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, states:
“The President, Vice-President … members of the National Assembly and Houses of Assembly of states and such other public officers or persons shall not maintain or operate a bank account in any country outside Nigeria.”
Several punishments were recommended in Paragraph 18 of same Schedule of the constitution for any public officer that defaults on the above provision.
They include: vacation of office or seat; disqualification from membership of a legislative house; seizure or forfeiture of assets or property being proceeds of such corruption; and prosecution in addition to the above sanctions; where the conduct constitutes a crime.
The deputy director, who reportedly was responsible for the controversial ‘Change begins with me’ speech delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari, will this week be transferred out of the State House.
Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, had on Friday said that the presidency was greatly embarrassed by the development and promised that sanctions would be meted out on whoever was responsible.
“The Presidency wishes to state in the clearest possible terms that it regrets this unfortunate incident and will ensure that this does not happen again.
“Already, a Deputy Director in the Presidency has accepted responsibility for the insertion of the contentious paragraph.
“This serious oversight will be investigated thoroughly and appropriate sanction meted,” the statement read.
Sources at the presidency hinted that the official will start facing disciplinary proceedings according to civil service rules on Monday.
But he will first be directed to vacate his seat at the president’s office, officials said.
The deputy director is expected to be queried by the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Jalal Arabi, before the case will be referred to the Head of Service for further actions.
The plagiarism was first detected by a Newspaper columnist and President Buhari has since apologised for the incident.
Public secondary schools in Borno State will reopen on Monday, September 26, more than two years after they were closed due to Boko Haram insurgency.
Borno State Commissioner for Education, Inuwa Kubo, told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Maiduguri that Internally Displayed Persons, IDPs, who were camped at the schools, had been relocated so that academic activities could resume.
He said that repair works had been carried out on the structures in the schools to provide conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning.
The statement read: “I wish to announce that on September 26, all public schools are going to be re-opened.
“I want to state that government has repaired all the structures damaged by the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the schools, to ensure comfort for the returning students.
“Parents and guardians should please make sure that they send their children back to school,” he said.
The commissioner said it was unfortunate that proprietors of private schools in the state had taken advantage of the closure of public schools to arbitrarily hike their school fees.
“We understand that some of them have taken undue advantage of the closure to hike school fees; we will not allow the situation to continue,” he said.
“We are going to visit the schools to find out how much they are charging and how much they are paying their teachers.”
It would be recalled that public schools in Borno State were forced to close in March, 2014, after suspected terrorists attacked a school in neighbouring Yobe.
The government reopened the primary schools in 2015 but could not do so with the secondary schools as they had been taken over by IDPs.
President Buhari on his arrival at the JFK international airport was received by the Chief of the Nigerian mission to the US
President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to address the United Nations General Assembly on the condition of the millions of people residing in the Lake Chad Basin on Monday.
The president is one of the five speakers scheduled to address the assembly during its plenry session.
Among other things, president Buhari is also expected to sign the Climate Change agreement reached in 2015 at Paris, France.
Top Nigerian government officials who accompanied the president on the trip include Minister of Solid Minerals, Kayode Fayemi, Minister of the Interior, Abdulrahman Danbazzau and Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed.
Others are the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora Matters, Abike Dabiri Erewa and the National Security Adviser, Babagana Munguno.
President Buhari arrived in New York on Saturday evening and was received by the Nigerian Charge De Affairs in the city, Anthony Bosa.
Over 190 world leaders would be attending the UN general assembly for a high level opening meeting where many challenges facing different nations of the world would be discussed, including the issue of refugees and migrants.
Also on Monday, the President is expected to attend the AU Peace and Security Council meeting at the AU Observer Mission Office, before meeting with the British Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Matthew Rycroft.
Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Services, FIRS, Tunde Fowler
Executive Chairman of Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Tunde Fowler, says that Africa has huge revenue generation potentials which could only be realized if African leaders would grant autonomy to their countries’ Revenue Authorities.
The former head of the Lagos Internal Revenue Service, LIRS, shared the experience of the autonomous FIRS and LIRS, in his presentation titled: “Establishment of An Autonomous Revenue Authority With An Independent Board-The Nigerian Experience”.
Fowler said this at the African Tax Administration Forum and International Monetary Fund, ATAF-IMF, seminar in Cape Town, South Africa.
He pointed out that the autonomy of the Nigeria’s Tax Authorities has brought about a huge increase in collection by tax authorities in Nigeria.
Fowler said “Clearly, Revenue Authorities across Africa have the potentials to generate funding for their respective governments and they will perform better if they are allowed to fully be in charge of their day to day operations and empowered to hire staff, pay competitive salaries and provide regular training for staff.
“The compelling evidence from Nigeria’s experience is that wherever Revenue Authorities have been granted operational, administrative and financial autonomy and allowed to operate with minimal civil service bureaucratic encumbrances, revenue administration has been enhanced and tax collection performance has gone up significantly.”
The tax boss maintained that the independence of revenue boards has proven to be beneficial for revenue generation agencies in meeting up with their responsibility of generating funds for government to carry out its projects and programmes.
For instance, Fowler noted that revenue generation increased “from N1.846 trillion in 2007 when FIRS was granted autonomy to an average of over N4.5 trillion in 2015.
“In the LIRS, tax revenue grew from N50 billion in 2007 to N270 billion in 2015.”
The FIRS chairman said that Nigeria had neglected revenue generation from taxes due to more focus on income from oil but following declines in oil proceeds in the 1990s, government was forced to adopt series of tax reforms and initiatives.
He recalled that at that time, the FIRS was under the Finance Ministry and was faced with many hitches characterizing the civil service, including absence of financial and administrative autonomy, existence of leakages in revenue collection due to lack of transparency and corrupt practices by some tax officials and taxpayers, etc.
Fowler noted that various reports and recommendations by experts in revenue generation, eventually led to the promulgation of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, No. 13, 2007).
“It was the second time a tax agency would enjoy autonomy in Nigeria with an Act of Parliament.
“The first being the enactment of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service Law in 2006 by the Lagos State House of Assembly,” he said.
He explained that the FIRS, under the supervision of its independent Board, has been able to initiate and implement various revenue collection in the country.
The FIRS chief executive listed the initiatives of the service which lead to the increase of revenue generation in the country to include amongst others: the VAT Auto-Collect project; the Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS) project; the National Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) project; Massive Taxpayers Registration activities, etc.
Fowler acknowledged that “there is no ‘one size fits all’ way” to achieve an improved tax regime, but “a good way to start is to put in place requisite legal and administrative framework to ensure that the Revenue Authority can function with less public service bottlenecks…”
He added that political support and general policy direction from the supervisory Ministries of Finance, will also be critical to the success of Revenue Authorities.
The Nigerian Air Force, NAF, says it carried out several air strikes on suspected Boko Haram terrorists’ locations on the outskirts of Tumbin Gini and Tumbin Kayewa, Northeastern Borno State, on Friday 16 September 2016.
A statement posted on the force’s social media page on Sunday said that the air strikes were in continuation of NAF’s efforts at finishing the remnants of the Boko Haram terrorists in the North East.
The statement added that “the air strikes were as a result of ground based intelligence and successive Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance reports obtained from several missions flown by NAF platforms.”
“A post-strike battle damage assessment of the the strikes revealed that the rendezvous was badly damaged with many casualties while those far from the vicinity could be seen scrambling to safety.”
The NAF said that the aircrafts involved in the operations were the NAF F-7Ni and the Alpha jets.
It added that the air operations have continued to make life difficult for the terrorists.
“This has enabled unhindered advance by the surface forces as part of the ongoing Operation GAMA AIKI,” the statement added.
Recall that the NAF had, in an earlier operation successfully conducted air strikes on Boko Haram camps at Tumbin Rego on 26 August which led to the death of many high ranking members of the group.
Below is the link to the video of the airstrikes as released by NAF.
