President Muhammadu Buhari has said minimum wage earners would be exempted from Personal Income Tax payment.
Buhari said the plan was one of the proposals in the 2020 Finance Bill pending before the National Assembly.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo disclosed Buhari’s plan at the opening of the 26th Nigerian Economic Summit Group conference.
A statement by Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, disclosed that the measure would also help in stimulating Nigeria’s economy.
“We are proposing in the new Finance Bill that those who earn minimum wage should be exempted from paying income tax.
“These provisions complement the tax breaks given to small businesses last year to not only further stimulate the economy, but are also a fulfillment of promises made to take steps to help reduce the cost of transportation and the impact of inflation on ordinary Nigerians,” he said.
Nigerian rights activist and Co-convener of #BringBackOurGirls movement, Aisha Yesufu, has been listed among the BBC’s 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for the year 2020.
The activist was listed alongside Sanna Marin, who leads Finland’s all-female coalition government, Michelle Yeoh, star of the new Avatar and Marvel films, and Sarah Gilbert, who heads the Oxford University research into a Coronavirus vaccine, as well as Jane Fonda, a climate activist and actress.
According to the BBC, this year’s 100 Women list “is highlighting those who are leading change and making a difference during these turbulent times”.
Yesufu has also been at the forefront of the EndSARS movement, a campaign that gained traction on social media globally against the excesses of a deadly police unit called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
Yesufu, who was born by Edo parents but raised in Kano, had always shared her difficult experiences of being a girl-child in a heavily patriarchal environment.
She said, “By the time I was 11 years old, I did not have any female friends because all of them had been married off but I wanted to be educated and leave the ghetto.
“Most of my mates were almost grandmothers when I married at 24.”
The United States mission in Nigeria says Nigeria is not included in the visa bond pilot programme which was issued by the outgoing President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday.
In a statement, the U.S. mission said that the limited six-month visa bond pilot programme, beginning Dec. 24, 2020, affected 15 African countries, excluding Nigeria.
The 15 African countries affected are Angola, Liberia, Libya, Burkina Faso, Congo, Djibouti, Burundi, Eritrea, Mauritania, Gambia, Susan, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Principe and Cape Verde.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) visa bond programme will require applicants for tourist and business visas from some African countries to pay up to $15,000 bond (country dependent) in addition to visa fees.
The U.S. mission said that the new rule was put in place to address the high rate of Nonimmigrant overstay following visa expiration and/or completion of purpose in the U.S.
“The Department and our embassies and consulates overseas conducted an in-depth analysis to identify and address root causes of overstays.
“The State Department is considering additional steps to address overstays, including piloting a limited visa bonds program to test the operational feasibility of posting, processing, and discharging visa bonds as means to ensure the timely departure from the United States of certain travelers.
“This is in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS),” the statement read.
According to the mission, the U.S. is committed to combating visa overstays and making sure travelers to the United States respect laid down laws.
“The implementation of this pilot builds on our engagement with foreign governments in recent years and will ensure continued progress to reduce overstay rates,” the U.S mission said.
The death toll from last week’s protests over the arrest of Ugandan presidential candidate and musician Bobi Wine has risen to 45.
More than 800 people were arrested during two days of protests that broke out on November 18.
Police spokesman Fred Enanga told reporters on Monday that “our hearts go to the families” of those killed.
The election will be held in January next year.
The unrest – Uganda’s worst in a decade – broke out after Mr Wine’s arrest in the eastern town of Luuka.
Police accused him of flouting Covid-19 guidelines which require presidential candidates to address less than 200 people.
He was later charged with negligent conduct likely to cause spread of an infectious disease.
Mr Wine, who has been arrested many times in recent years, has captured the imagination of many Ugandans with his persistent calls for president Yoweri Museveni to retire after 36 years in power.
Last week, the United Nations secretary-general condemned the violence and called on Ugandan authorities to ensure that “all perpetrators of human rights violation are held accountable”.
The bodies of three children were found in a car parked at the home of a retired police officer at Ugwu Ogede in Itchi, Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area of Enugu State on Monday, November 23.
The victims identified as Chibugo Eze, Chinenye Eze, and Ebuka Ene, were reported missing after they went to fetch water at a commercial borehole owned and located at the home of the former police officer.
It was gathered that two other children named Kingsley Eze, and Mmasichukwu were equally rescued from the same car and upon resuscitation, they claimed that three hooded men abducted them into the car and left.
The parents of the children had raised a search team when their children who had gone to the borehole at about 8 am on Sunday, November 22, did not return home as usual.
The traditional ruler of the community, HRH, Igwe Ike Oke, who confirmed the incident said that he also mobilised personnel of vigilante and Forest Guard groups who joined in the search of the missing children.
“We were almost frustrated in our search when a community member who went to fetch water heard the voice of a little child calling her name. She traced the voice to a car that had been parked for over six months in the compound where she discovered the children and raised the alarm,”said the monarch.
“We found three of the children already dead by the time we opened the car. I think they suffocated to death because the car doors were stiffed when we tried to open it at first but we engaged an artisan who forced it open. One of the two children rescued said they went to fetch water but didn’t meet anyone at the borehole because the owner and the entire members of the family had gone to church service,”
“He informed us that they were about going home when three hooded men came from a hill beside the scene of the incident and abducted them into the car and left. He said they were all dressed in red cloths. He also said that the hoodlums returned at the middle of the night to take them away but they couldn’t open the car doors because they were stiffed. We are still investigating.
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday commenced the trial of a former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reformed Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, in his absence.
Maina, who is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on N2bn money laundering charges, had last attended court on July 2, 2020, during the cross-examination of the sixth prosecution witness by his legal team.
He had however failed to attend subsequent proceedings since September 29, 2020, prompting the judge, Justice Okon Abang, to adjudge him as having jumped bail in a ruling delivered on November 18, 2020.
The judge in the November 18 ruling, revoked the bail earlier granted him, ordered his arrest, and directed that his trial would proceed in his absence.
On Monday, the judge ordered the remand of Maina’s bail surety, Senator Ali Ndume, until he is able to produce the fleeing defendant in court or pay the N500m bail bond to the Federal Government.
Maina was again absent at the resumed hearing in the case on Tuesday.
There was also no lawyer to represent him or his company charged along with him as his second defendant.
Following the request of the prosecuting counsel, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, the judge closed the right of Maina to continue cross-examining the sixth prosecution.
He also foreclosed the second defendant’s right to cross-examine the witness.
The seventh prosecuting witness, Ali Sani, also testified, with defendants and their lawyers unavailable to cross-examine him.
The judge, who also closed the defendants’ right to cross-examine the witness, also admitted an exhibit tendered by the prosecuting without any objection.
Justice Abang held that the defendants had the opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses and oppose the admissibility of the exhibit tender but failed to take advantage of it.
“They have themselves to blame,” the judge repeated each time he had to take a decision closing or foreclosing the defendants’ rights in the course of the trial.
As of the time of filing this report on Thursday, the eighth prosecution witness had been invited to the witness box to testify.
US President-elect Joe Biden participates in a virtual meeting with the United States Conference of Mayors at the Queen in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 23, 2020. – US President-elect Joe Biden on Monday named the deeply experienced Antony Blinken for secretary of state, also nominating the first female head of intelligence and a czar for climate issues, with a promise to a return to expertise after the turbulent years of Donald Trump. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP)
President-elect Joe Biden’s team on Monday welcomed the long-delayed release of government aid for his transition to the White House, a step he said was crucial to “a smooth and peaceful transfer of power.”
“The GSA administrator has ascertained President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the apparent winners of the election, providing the incoming administration with the resources and support necessary to carry out a smooth and peaceful transfer of power,”Biden’s team said in a statement.
“Today’s decision is a needed step to begin tackling the challenges facing our nation, including getting the pandemic under control and our economy back on track. This final decision is a definitive administrative action to formally begin the transition process with federal agencies.”
General Services Administration head Emily Murphy, who denies acting under political pressure, had refused since the November 3 election to release the standard package of aid that her agency manages to Biden’s incoming team.
Her decision came with Donald Trump refusing to concede, baselessly alleging vote fraud and seeking through legal challenges and other means to overturn the results of the November 3 election.
Biden transition executive director Yohannes Abraham said in the statement that the president-elect’s team would now move quickly, with Murphy’s decision also formally allowing for coordination with current government officials.
“In the days ahead, transition officials will begin meeting with federal officials to discuss the pandemic response, have a full accounting of our national security interests, and gain complete understanding of the Trump administration’s efforts to hollow out government agencies,” he said.
Amid threats of sanction from the Federal Government over its investigative report on the shootings at Lekki toll plaza during the #EndSARS protests, CNN has released a second report on the incident.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had last week described CNN’s report on the Lekki shootings as poor journalism, adding that the network deserved to be sanctioned.
Mohammed also followed up the threat with a letter addressed to the management of CNN in Atlanta.
However, the network on Tuesday did a second report with more damning footage showing soldiers shooting at unarmed protesters on October 20, 2020.
The fresh report also shows the Commander, 81 Division, Brig.Gen Ahmed Taiwo, admitting before the judicial panel in Lagos that his men indeed took live ammunition to the tollgate.
The CNN report also highlights the fact that Brig.Gen Taiwo’s claim is at variance with the minister’s who had claimed last week that the army fired blank bullets.
The fresh report also shows protesters running as soldiers open fire at the tollgate.
The National Broadcasting Commission which is overseen by the information minister, had last month slammed hefty fines on three Nigerian television stations for daring to use some of the footage which CNN has also used.
The Federal Government has been receiving flak from members of the United Kingdom Parliament and Amnesty International over the killing of protesters.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, Akure zone, has said the only way to end incessant strikes in the education sector is to promulgate a law banning the public office holders from sending their children abroad to study.
The zonal coordinator of the union, Prof. Olufayo Olu-Olu, in a statement, said such a law would help to rebuild the nation’s education sector.
“Members of the ruling class and their cohorts have their wards schooling abroad, so they do not commit to ending ASUU strike since the political office has become occupational rather than public service.
“Until we domesticate two very important practices as laws in Nigeria, we may not get out of this doldrums -first, an act to compel all public office holders and government appointees to have their wards educated in Nigeria public schools from primary to tertiary level.
“Secondly, an act to compel all political office holders, appointees and their dependents prohibiting them from seeking medical intervention outside Nigeria. When these two laws are enacted, perhaps we will gradually see the end of needless ASUU strikes in the country.
“Until such a time when the government does the needful (our ivory towers properly funded, our withheld emoluments paid amongst other issues), the struggle continues,” the statement partly read.
