The threat by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that it may order a one-month sit-at-home in the South-east to protest the delay in the prosecution of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Thursday.
ThisDay reports that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has said that it might order a one-month sit-at-home in the South-east to protest the delay in the prosecution of its leader, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu.
The group said the one month long sit-at-home exercise would commence if the Department of State Services (DSS) failed to produce Kanu in court on October 21.
The Media and Publicity Secretary of the IPOB, Mr. Emma Powerful, made this known yesterday in a statement made available to THISDAY in Awka, Anambra State.
He said that the IPOB has gathered from a reliable source that the DSS planned to keep Kanu away from the court on October 21 as a ploy to continue to incarcerate him.
Part of the release read: “The attention of the IPOB has been drawn to the plot by Nigeria government and her DSS in Abuja not to produce our leader Mr. Nnamdi Kanu to court on October 21, 2021, the date he is due to appear in court to start his case.
“Their wicked plan is to perpetually keep him behind bars without trial to see if they can demoralise him and Biafrans but they are late.
“If the federal government refuses to bring him to court in his next court appearance on October 21, 2021, the entire Biafra land will be on total lockdown for one month,” the statement said.
The newspaper says that stakeholders in the fight against cross border bulk cash smuggling have again established that the dominance of cash in business transactions in West Africa and the informality of the economy make the region vulnerable and attractive to criminals.
The stakeholders, including the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Financial Action Task Force–Styled Regional Body (FSRB) responsible for combating the scourge of Money Laundering (ML) and Terrorist Financing (TF) in West Africa and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, have also traced the challenges of identification, tracing and recovery of laundered proceeds of crime facing the security operatives in the region to cash transactions.
Speaking at a three-day Workshop/ training on ‘Prevention of Cross Border Bulk Cash Smuggling’ organised by GIABA in Lagos, the Director General of the Inter-Governmental Action Group, Mr. Aba Kimelabalou, admitted that cross border bulk cash smuggling and smuggling of goods have remained rampant criminal activities within West African countries, with adverse implications for the economies of member States because cash in business transactions and smuggling provide perpetrators with the anonymity they need to transact illicit businesses.
The Nation reports that foreign exchange illiquidity, underlying economic weakness and other factors will constrain Nigeria’s economic growth to two per cent this year, an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company, JPMorgan Chase & Co, said yesterday.
This implies that the recovery of the economy from last year’s coronavirus pandemic-induced contraction could be slower than previously expected.
A “continued lack of foreign-exchange liquidity, underlying economic weakness, an emerging third wave of COVID-19 infections and a slow rollout of vaccines will likely slow the recovery process,” JPMorgan said.
Nigeria’s economy is likely to expand by 1.5 percent this year, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA analysts including Gbolahan Taiwo and Ayomide Mejabi said in an emailed note.
That’s after it shrunk 1.92 percent last year, the most since at least 1991, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) data. That’s below the median estimate of 11 economists in a Bloomberg survey as well as the IMF and central bank’s predictions.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had unexpectedly halted the sale of foreign exchange to bureaus de change (BDCs) and increased supplies to banks in July, though that measure hasn’t helped ease the scarcity, according to Bloomberg report.
The Punch says that the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee on Wednesday said it shared a total of N696.965bn as August 2021 revenue to the Federal, States and Local Governments as well as other relevant agencies in Nigeria.
The Office of Accountant General of the Federation disclosed that the shared revenue was contained in a communiqué issued by FAAC after its monthly meeting for September 2021 held through virtual conferencing.
The Director of Information, Press and Public Relations, OAGF, Henshaw Ogubike, revealed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday.
The statement was titled ‘FAAC shares N696.965bn August 2021 revenue to FG, states and LGC’. According to the statement, the gross statutory revenue for August was N477.5bn, the gross revenue from the Value Added Tax was N166.23bn and revenue from the exchange gain amounted to N2.830bn.
The OAGF also said that the excess bank charges recovered was N403m, while revenue from non-oil was N50bn, bringing the total gross revenue to N696.97bn.
The statement said, “In August 2021, the sum of N72.29bn was the total deductions for cost of collection, statutory transfers and refunds. “The balance in the Excess Crude Account was $60.857m.”
The communiqué indicated that from the total revenue, the Federal Government received N289.257bn, while the state and local governments received N217.183bn and N161.541bn respectively.
The Sun reports that the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has given assurance that the proposed review of allocation sharing formula will address agitations of state and local governments.
The Federal Commissioner, representing Lagos State in RMAFC, Dr. Adekunle Wright and Director, Inland Revenue Department, RMAFC, Udodirim Okongwu, gave the assurance at the Pre South-West stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting on 2021 revenue allocation formula review, held in Lagos.
Wright said in view of the changing situation and demands, the Commission has been prompted to host stakeholders across the federation towards reviewing the revenue formula in the country.
According to him, the Commission was desirous to “within the shortest possible time” come up with a feasible review for a workable formula that aligns with current realities.
Explaining the expectations from the stakeholders in respect of the proposed review formula, Okongwu said the Commission looks towards arriving at a fair, just and equitable revenue formula.
She mentioned that the biggest challenge was that there is an absence of explicit vertical sharing factors in the constitution, against the horizontal factors, which according to her, made it problematic to come with fair, just and equitable formula.
The newspaper says that the new Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Chinyere Almona, who assumed duty few months back, has promised to bring her experience to bear on her role to achieve objectives of the Chamber while maintaining growth and stability within the institution.
The corporate governance professional, who has about 30 years of diversified experience in multiple disciplines in management consulting, advisory services, strategy and human capital development, founded Vantage Governance Services, with an extensive professional network across Africa.
She promises to drive the Africa agenda and support members in their AFCFTA journey. Almona led the Africa Corporate Governance Program of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which provided a wide range of corporate governance reforms across 13 African countries. My primary responsibility is to develop strategy and direct its implementation.
We have gone through the painful period of the COVID -19, which has been a heavy blow on our institutions. So, I’m trying to ensure that it’s stabilised. It is also critical for me to diversify and grow the Chambers revenue sources and improve efficiency and service delivery to members to increase member engagement.
GIK/APA