AS RECESSION BITES HARDER,GOVERNOR ABOLISHES TAXES.

Following his conviction that there would be long suffering as a result of the recession in the country, Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State yesterday abolished some levies and taxes in the state.
Obiano who addressed the state in special broadcast said abolishment of the levies and taxes was to cushion the effect of the economic downtown on the people.
He said, “Following the formal announcement by the Federal Government that the nation’s economy has gone into a recession, I consider it my duty as your Governor to distil the message of the economic situation of the country down to the grassroots.
“Following this development too, I am happy to announce to you that I have come up with a Stimulus Package that will ease the pain of the recession and help our dear state bounce back to prosperity.
“Brothers and sisters, our country’s painful journey into the current recession is fairly known to us. The events that triggered this decline are very well documented in the public domain. So, I will not go through the details of how we arrived where we are.
“I wish to assure you that after a careful study of the situation, I am more convinced now than ever before that with our fundamentals, our infinite capacity to come back from deficits and our implicit faith in God, our story should be different in Anambra State.
“Consequently, our intervention comes in Four Key Areas: Tax Relief Programme, Special Intervention Programmes for Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs and Large Enterprises, Social Intervention Programme for Low Income Households and finally; Intervention in Infrastructure-for-Jobs.”
He said his Tax Relief Programme was meant to evaluate existing taxes, levies and fees in the state and introduce some waivers and in some cases scrap the collection of some illegal levies imposed on the people, adding that they would go a long way to cushioning the impact of the recession on households in the state.
His broadcast also reads inpart, “I hereby suspend the sale of consolidated emblems in Anambra State. I suspend the collection of Hawkers Permit on all streets in the state. I suspend the collection of Wheelbarrow Tax in all markets in the state.
“Lastly, I abolish the imposition of unapproved levies on students in public primary and secondary schools in the state. All these pronouncements shall take immediate effect.
“My role as your Governor is to envisage challenges and provide solutions that will ensure a speedy comeback from difficult situations that require the power and might of a state government.”
Obiano however assured the people that his agricultural policy and various other intervention measures would sustain hope and life for his people in the prevailing hardship and urged them support the government to continue to develop that state.

YAHAYA BELLO IS GOVERNOR OF KOGI- SUPREME COURT

The supreme court of Nigeria, yesterday affirmed Governor Yahaya Bello of APC governor of Kogi state.
Justice Kekere Ekun who pronounced the judgement said Honourable James Faleke’s appeal lacks merit and thereby dismissed.
She also said that the ruling of the lower court dismissing his appeal earlier is upheld. The seven panel of judges who unanimously agreed to the judgement said reasons for the judgement will be given on September 30.
Likewise, the appeal by a former governor of Kogi state Idris Wada has been dismissed...Governor Bello election affirmed by the Supreme Court
Today’s judgement on the November 2015 Kogi gubernatorial comes after series of appeals filed on the matter by the different parties involved.Bello’s emergence as the Kogi state governor came after a former governor of the state and the All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer Audu Abubakar died almost at the end of the election.
Abubakar’s death among many others led to the declaration of the Kogi election as inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral commission

ARMY WANTS ATM

The Nigerian Army, on Sunday, called on commercial banks to deploy Automated Teller Machines, ATM, to the military barracks in Maiduguri for the use of front line soldiers involved in the ongoing counter-insurgency operation in Borno.
Brig. Gen. Victor Ezugwu, the General Officer Commanding, GOC, 7 Division, made the call while speaking at a Civil-Military Forum organised by the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri.
Ezugwu was reacting to criticisms by residents that soldiers often refused to join queues at the ATM points in the town.
He said that the army had written several letters to the banks for the deployment of ATM machines to the barracks without much success.
“We have been battling with the issue of lack of ATM in the barracks for the use of soldiers in the front line zone.
“I wrote letters to the banks over seven months ago for them to deploy the ATM at the Maimalari Cantonment for soldiers use, but there is no response yet,” he said.
Ezugwu said that the military was concerned about the development and urged the residents to intervene.
“I want to urge everybody here, especially traditional rulers, to help put pressure on the banks so that they can give us ATM at the barracks and allow you to use the ones in town.
“We are aware of the fact that everybody needs the ATM at one point or another,” he said.
“ A soldier carrying 12 ATM cards at a time must have brought his colleagues’ cards from the frontline to take money and send to their families all over Nigeria.
“We have areas where there is no network, it is only through the ATM that the soldiers can send money home to their families’ he said.
Ezugwu appealed for more understanding from the residents pending when the ATM would be provided by the banks at the barracks.

HERDSMAN GETS PRISON TERM

As most states in gear up to curtail the incessant attracts by herdsmen an
 Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti has sentenced one Ali Haruna to two years imprisonment for taking his cows for grazing in a farmland in Ado-Ekiti and destroying crops.
The Magistrate, Idowu Ayenimo, in his judgement, said the accused was arraigned in his court on Jan 22, 2016 over a two-count charge of wilful and unlawful damage of farm crops at Ago Aduloju in Ado-Ekiti.
The 18-year-old Haruna was confirmed by the four prosecuting witnesses to have been caught in the midnight grazing his cow in the farm belonging to Abdulahi Yaho and Bello Mohammed.
The cash crops said to have destroyed by the cows in the farm included cassava, maize, okro and pepper, all valued at N3 million. In his defence, the defendant had told the court that the owner of the cows lived in Ilorin, Kwara. The magistrate said that the court did not believe Haruna’s defence as it was not credible.
He held that the Police prosecutor, Mr Olasunkanmi Bankole, had proved his case beyond reasonable doubt. He thereby convicted the defendant as charged without option of fine. The magistrate ordered that sentence should run concurrently, explaining that the term was minimal because the offence was committed before the Grazing Law was promulgated in the state.
The defence counsel, Mr Chris Omokhafe, had prayed the court to be liberal in the dispensation of justice, saying that he was a first offender.

BEGGING BANNED IN ABUJA.

The Federal Capital Territory Administration, has restated that grazing, begging, street hawking and commercial motorcycle remained banned in the Federal Capital City, Abuja and must be enforced by the security agents.
The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello stated this on Monday in Abuja, after an emergency FCT Security Committee meeting.
Bello stressed that the FCT Administration would continue to collaborate with the security agencies to ensure that the ban was effective while following all due processes.
He emphasised that the institutions must be strengthened to carry out their statutory duties in line with the ‘Change Agenda’ of the Federal Government.
He however commended the security community for “the high-level intelligence sharing that has so far assisted the Administration to nip in the bud any security breach in the Territory.”
The security committee condemned the illegal attempt by some criminal gangs that stormed the Vocational and Rehabilitation Centre, Kuchiko in Bwari Area Council to rescue some of the inmates at the centre, following the arrest of 687 beggars.
It also decried the illegal use of uncompleted buildings by miscreants and criminals in the FCT, warning that owners of such properties would be held responsible for any security breach traced to their property.
The minister reiterated that owners of such uncompleted buildings must provide security in and around such structures and also ensure the cleanliness of the surrounding areas.
The meeting was attended by the FCT Permanent Secretary, Dr. Babatope Ajakaiye, FCT Police Commissioner, Commandant Guards Brigade, Garrison Commander, heads of Navy and Air Force in the FCT, Director of FCT DSS, Chairmen of the six Area Councils in FCT, Coordinator, AMMC as well as Mandate Secretaries and the heads of Para-military organs in the FCT.ntalive.com

FIRST LADY CRIES OUT.

Nigeria's former first lady ,Patience Jonathan on Monday ,said the recent freezing of some $15m which she claimed belongs to her amounted to 'political persecution' and threatened to sue the country's antigraft agency over the freeze.
In an open letter to Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Jonathan insisted she was neither told of any corruption probe against her nor was she invited to make any statement before accounts she claimed to be hers were frozen on suspicion of graft.
"It is (Mrs Jonathan's) brief that up until the writing of this Open Letter, she has not received any formal invitation to appear before the Commission for questioning; whereas her accounts domiciled with Skye Bank Plc. have since been frozen by the Commission without recourse to her," according to the letter written by her attorneys.
"It is also our client’s brief that the EFCC failed to obtain a court order as required by Section 34 of the EFCC Act before her accounts were frozen.
"Our Client has unfortunately come under the vice grip and stranglehold of the cabal of political jobbers who would not allow her concentrate on her private life in retirement," the letter added.
Jonathan claimed the actions of the agency violated the country's law and her rights under the African Charter on Human and People's Rights. She asked the agency to unfreeze the accounts within the next 14 days or risk being dragged before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in The Gambia.
Jonathan's funds frozen by the antigraft agency were found in accounts operated by firms belonging to those who were aides to her assistant, Waripamowei Dudafa.
All four firms last Friday pleaded guilty to charges of laundering the $15m on behalf of Jonathan's aide. However, the former first lady claimed the accounts belonged to her.
The agency, for its part, insists the money was a proceed of corrupt enrichment and that freezing it until purported owners proved otherwise is within its constitutional right.
The case is just one of the many corruption cases linked to the administration of former president, Goodluck Jonathan.

JAMB GIVES DEADLINE

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The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has insisted that all admissions to universities, polytechnics and colleges of education should be concluded by 30th November.
JAMB Registrar Is-haq Oloyede reaffirmed the deadline on Friday in Abuja at the opening of an Extra-Ordinary Technical Committee Meeting on 2016 Admissions to First Choice Institutions.
The meeting held at the Baze University, Abuja. He said that the meeting was an indication that the board was ready to attend to legitimate requests of its stakeholders and clients in the collective quest for efficiency.
Oloyede said that JAMB would be flexible except in cases where flexibility would be unethical or inimical to national interest.
According to him, the meeting is in line with the board’s pledge to be consultative and all-inclusive in the discharge of its functions.
“The First Technical Committee Meeting was held in Bayero University, Kano, from Aug. 22 to Aug. 26, where institutions were expected to make submissions for their first choice admissions to admissions’ panels at the technical sessions.
“However, some institutions informed the meeting that they were not ready to make submissions as internal processes leading to the exercise had not been completed.
“The affected institutions requested for an earlier special date than the date for the Second Technical Committee Meeting scheduled for Nov. 14 in Owerri, Imo State,’’ he said.
Oloyede said that he expected the institutions represented at the meeting to be prepared to make presentations of their recommended candidates to the board. He said that the meeting was primarily for placement of suitably qualified candidates into tertiary institutions.
“As such, I need to re-state my earlier submission that the senate and the academic boards of the institutions have the primary responsibility of recommending candidates to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board for admissions.
“JAMB will not initiate or insert any candidates but will, as expected, ensure that no candidate is unjustly treated by any institution.
“The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board is thus a referee for justice, equity and standards,” he said.
The registrar said that the only difference in the 2016 admissions process was the policy that there should be no written post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination test.
He said that other admission processes remained. The registrar urged institutions yet to update their requirements for the 2017 brochure to urgently do so.