Connect with us

Featured

Insecurity In Nigeria Worsens, As Over 255 Killed, 258 Abducted In January

Published

on

No fewer than 255 Nigerians were killed during the first month of this year as insecurity has continued to worsen across the country, according to a tally by the Civic Media Lab, a not-for-profit organization that champion’s media innovation for civic engagement.

Investigations equally have it that 258 Nigerians were also kidnapped during the period while about 47 persons were injured in the violence.

Those Nigerians who did not live beyond January were murdered by different armed groups, such as Boko Haram, Fulani killer herdsmen, bandits, kidnappers and others.

Apart from the long-existing notorious armed groups contributing mainly to violent deaths in the country, the Western Nigerian Security Network, better known as Amotekun, has joined the fray.

No fewer than eleven persons were killed by Amotekun in Oyo State last month.

However, bandits were mostly responsible for the deaths and abductions, surpassing the dreaded Boko Haram that has caused so many miseries in the North East in over a decade-old insurgency to enthrone Islamic governance.

Boko Haram killed about ten persons and abducted 61 others in January, but bandits killed nearly 141, injured 40 and kidnapped 161 persons.

The bandits’ atrocities happened mainly in Kaduna, Katsina, Nasarawa, Niger, Taraba and Zamfara states. In Kaduna State, 57 persons were killed while 31 were kidnapped, making the state the most affected in the country.

Zamfara State came close to Kaduna with 57 fatalities and 18 abducted victims. Other states, such as Katsina, Nasarawa and Niger states recorded more than six violent deaths.

Again, 87 persons were kidnapped in Niger while 25 in Taraba were also abducted.Elsewhere, communal clashes caused 14 deaths. About ten persons were killed in Akwa Ibom and four others were abducted in the state.

In Lagos, Delta, and Abia states, cults and hoodlums caused 23 deaths, with 21 deaths coming from Lagos alone.

In January, other instances of violent deaths included 12 persons who were killed by unidentified gunmen in Delta, six in Rivers, five in Kaduna, four in Oyo, three in Ebonyi, two in Plateau, and one in each in Nasarawa and Taraba.

Gunmen also abducted 20 persons in Nasarawa, 10 in Abuja, three in Rivers, two in Delta, and one in Edo and Oyo states. Herdsmen murdered two persons in Benue and one other person in Delta. They also kidnapped four people in Delta

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Business

Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Published

on

Ismaila Ahmad Abdullahi Ph.D

The public hearings conducted recently by the two Chambers of the National Assembly have elicited positive responses from a broad spectrum of Nigerians, cutting across regional interest groups, government agencies, civil society groups, concerned individuals, the academia, and Labour Unions, among diverse others. Contrary to a few dissensions hitherto expressed in the media, almost all the stakeholders who spoke during the week-long sessions were unanimous in their declaration that the hallowed Chambers should pass the tax reform bills after a clean-up of the grey areas.

The public hearings were auspicious for all Nigerians desirous of economic growth and fiscal responsibility. They were also a watershed moment for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which had been upbeat about the tax reforms. Indeed, the public hearings had rekindled hope in the tenets of democracy that guarantee freedom of expression and equitable space for cross-fertilisation of ideas. Without gainsaying the fact, the tax reform bills have been unarguably about the most thought-provoking issues in Nigeria today, drawing variegated perspectives and commentaries from even unlikely quarters such as the faith-based leaders, student bodies, and trade unions, which speaks much about the importance of the bills.

In the build-up to the public hearings, not many people believed that the bills would make it to the second reading, much less the public hearings. Even the Northern stakeholders who seemed unlikely to support the passage of the bills have softened their stance and have given valuable suggestions that would enrich the substance of the bills. The Arewa Consultative Forum came to the public hearings well-prepared with a printed booklet that addressed their concerns. It concluded with an advisory that the bills should be “Well planned, properly communicated, strategically implemented and ample dialogue and political consensus allowed for the reforms to be accepted.”

The concerns of ACF ranged from the composition of the proposed Nigeria Revenue Service Board as contained in Part 111, Section 7 of the bill, the unlimited Presidential power to exempt/wave tax payment as proposed in Section 75(1) of the bill, the family income or inheritance tax as contained in Part 1, Section 4(3) of the bill, to the issues around development levy and VAT. On the development levy, the ACF stated that unless the Federal Government is considering budgetary funding for TETFUND, NASENI and NITDA, it does not see the “wisdom behind the plan to replace (them) with NELFUND”.

The position of the North was equally reinforced by the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria, Northern Elders Forum, Kano State Government, Professor Auwalu Yadudu, and the FCT Imams. Like the ACF, these stakeholders lent their respective voices to the Section on the Inheritance Tax in Part 1 of the bill and the use of the term ‘ecclesiastical’, which, in their views, undermines certain religious rights and beliefs. The Kano State Government, represented by Mahmud Sagagi, affirmed that “we support tax modernisation” but cautioned that “we must ensure that this process does not come at the expense of states’ constitutional rights and economic stability”. Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional law professor, drew attention to the use of the ‘supremacy clause’ and cautioned that the repeated use of “notwithstanding” in the bills would undermine the supremacy of the Nigerian constitution if passed as such.

Other stakeholders that made contributions at the sessions included the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, and a host of others. While most of their concerns bordered on technical issues requiring fine-tuning, they were unanimous in their support for the bills. They aligned with the position of the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, Ph.D. and the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, which is that the extant tax laws and fiscal regulations are obsolete necessitating reforms aimed at creating a fair and equitable tax and fiscal space to grow Nigeria’s economy.

In one of the sessions, Dr Zaach Adedeji expounded on the criss-cross of trade activities in the Free Trade Zone whereby companies misuse tax waivers as exporters to sell their goods or services in the Customs Area at an amount usually less than the price the operators in the Customs Area who pay VAT and other taxes sell theirs thereby disrupting business transactions. This way, the operators in the Free Trade Zone shortchange the government in paying their due taxes by circumventing extant regulations, which are inimical to the economy’s growth.

Overall, the presentations were forthright, foresighted, and helpful in elucidating the issues contained in the bills. According to the statistics read out at the end of the hearings at the Senate, 75 stakeholders were invited, 65 made submissions, and 61 made presentations. At the House of Representatives 53 stakeholders made presentations. By all means, this is a fair representation. Given the presentations, it is evident that the National Assembly has gathered enough materials to guide its deliberations on the bills. As we look forward to the passage of the bills, we commend the leadership of the National Assembly for their unwavering commitment to making the bills see the light of the day.

Abdullahi is the Director of the Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS.

Continue Reading

Trending

error

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)