Adamawa State has confirmed that 299 rape cases were reported in the last five months.
Manager of Adamawa State Sexual Assault Referral Center, Dr Usha Saxena, made the disclosure on Tuesday in Yola, the state capital, while speaking with journalists.
Dr Saxena expressed concern that rape cases were on the rise across the state, adding that a lot more were not reported for fear of stigmatisation.
She said, “Many parents shy away from reporting sexual assault on their daughters for fear of stigmatisation.
“And because of this, the girls are exposed to asexually transmitted diseases.”
Content streaming service providers, Netflix and Amazon, as well as pay television channels, iROKOtv and Africa Magic are considering halting further investments in the Nigerian content industry, Vanguard has learnt.
The four platforms, Vanguard exclusively gathered, have been forced to consider discontinuation of investments in Nigeria because of the 6th Broadcast Code recently released by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
Creative and broadcasting industry sources disclosed that four platforms, which have invested enormously in local content production that are exclusive to them, are convinced that the new broadcast code is a huge threat to their investments, as it seeks to end exclusivity to broadcast properties and compel re-sale or sub-licensing to other broadcasters, including direct competitors.
Sources told our correspondent that the new code makes exclusivity illegal, compels content sub-licensing and aims to regulate the prices at which content is sub-licensed.
According to an industry source, the broadcast platforms view Sections 9.0.1 to 9.0.3 of the broadcast code represent a direct assault on investors, as it erodes the possibility of reaping dividends on their investments.
“These sections prohibit broadcasters from entering into rights acquisition agreements that do not allow the sub-licensing of such rights in Nigeria. The implication is that any such agreement entered into is void,” she explained.
An Enugu-based industry source also reasoned that Sections 9.1.1.8 to 9.1.1.11 of the Code are most injurious to investors in the industry.
The sections provide that a broadcaster must sub-license a programme in any genre if such enjoys massive viewership among Nigerians.
The implication of this, explained the source, is that investors, who fund the development of hit movies, series and shows, will be forced to sub-license that programme irrespective of whether or not they have recouped their investments.
“This isn’t just silly, but also wicked. It amounts to uncompensated use of intellectual property. The proper thing is for a broadcaster to freely bid for, negotiate or acquire rights at prices dictated by the market and on terms acceptable to channel suppliers,” he said.
He further explained that forced sub-licensing will inhibit investments, especially by foreigners in the content creation and broadcasting industry.
“I wasn’t surprised to learn that Netflix and Amazon are fretting. They should fret because they have invested heavily in the acquisition of Nigerian content.
“They are yet to recoup their investments, but you’re saying they must sell to competitors. Do you think other investors will be encouraged to come and invest? No.
“AfricaMagic has spent tonnes of money buying and creating local content. They are right to panic. So is Irokotv,” he said.
A former content producer explained that the broadcasting industry is already a difficult terrain to operate and has been made worse by the new code. He stated that NBC is seeking to turn private enterprise into state property and be the one to determine the scale of dividends an investor should reap on his investment.
He argued that broadcasters will invest only if they are certain that the content on their platforms will help differentiate their offerings and they are able to sufficiently recoup what they invested. He warned that NBC’s interference in broadcasters’ freedom to trade will discourage investment in the broadcasting industry.
This, in turn, he said, will have a negative impact on the production sector and the wider economy.
House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila has said prison experience for any politician is a “badge of honour”.
The Speaker, who was represented by Deputy Speaker Ahmed Idris Wase, spoke when he led Principal Officers of the House on a visit to Senate Chief Whip Orji Uzor Kalu, who was recently released from the Nigeria Correctional Centre in Kuje, Abuja.
Wase said the leadership of the House was in Kalu’s home to sympathise with him over his incarceration.
The Deputy Speaker urged the former Abia State governor to take his experience as a life’s lesson and put everything before God.
He said: “We are here to sympathise with you on what happened and your incarceration. As a politician, I want you to take it as one of those things.
“First, we congratulate you and urge you to put everything before God and believe it is part of destiny.
“My Leader, the late Chief Solomon Lar, told me not to fear, as a politician, to go to prison. He told me that going to prison is a badge of honour.
“If you are a good politician, you should be willing to taste prison experience because it will come to you in very many dimensions.
“That happened to us sometime in the past when we were being chased and humiliated, and he asked us to be resolute and face the issues as they were.
“He reminded us of how he was sentenced to over 90 to 150 years in prison. He told us that as leaders, there is always a judgment that could be passed.
“As our leader, we want you to appreciate what God has done for you; use it for the positive development of our country’s judicial system; use it in the interest of humanity.”
Ali Ndume, Senator representing Borno South in the National Assembly, has called for a slash of the salary of civil servants who no longer go to work due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ndume made this known during a media briefing in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital on Monday.
He stated that despite the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, the State and the Federal governments are spending more to sustain personnel and non-personnel costs.
He opined that those who are not going to work now should be given palliatives and paid less.
He said “The government should critically look at the recurrent and personnel expenditure which consumes about 70% of the budget.
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“More should be pumped into Capital and people should make sacrifices because this is the time to look at issues critically.
“I think there should be more sacrifice, especially on the personnel side.
“How can you sustain the same personnel and overhead cost when even the work they are doing, most people don’t go to the office now and they are being paid fully for the month. Is there any justification for that?”
“If you can’t work because of the pandemic, then you should be given palliatives and be paid less,” he added.
Power consumers are going to start paying more for prepaid meters as the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has hiked the cost of the commodity.
It was gathered in Abuja on Monday that the commission had increased the price for a three-phase meter from N67,055 to N82,855.19, while the cost of a single-phase meter was raised from N36,991 to N44.896.16.
Operators in the sector told our correspondent that the new prices were contained in a memo signed by the NERC Chairman, Prof. James Momoh, pegging the new price pursuant to section 19 (d) of the Meter Asset Providers regulation.
But the introduction of the MAP model, according to stakeholders, had yet to adequately address the meter demands of customers.
Providing reasons for the increase in meter cost, Momoh was said to have explained that the hike in foreign exchange rate by the Central Bank of Nigeria was a contributory factor.
He was quoted to have said, “In arriving at the approved unit costs, the commission has considered the recent changes in foreign exchange approved by the CBN and the applicable rate available to importers of meter components or fully assembled meters through investors and exporters’ forex window.”
Figures from the commission showed that out of a total of 8,310,408 registered active electricity customers, only 3,704,302 (44.6 per cent) had been metered.
This indicated that 55.4 per cent of end-user customers were still on estimated billing.
Power users had repeatedly condemned the inability of the regulatory commission and power distributors to provide prepaid meters since the sector was privatised in November 2013.
Power distributors, on their part, had subtly handed over the task of providing meters to the Meter Asset Providers introduced by the NERC.
There was a mixture of anger and laughter at the Nigerian Senate on Monday when the Director-General of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council, RMRDC, Professor Hussain Ibrahim, listed kilishi production as a research success in 33 years, Vanguard reports,
While briefing the Senate committee on science and technology, Professor Ibrahim told the Chairman of the Senate Committee, Senator Uche Ekwunife, and other members that kilishi, a locally spiced roasted meat, made in the north and popular among travellers in that region, is an outstanding achievement for the agency.
Senator Ekwunife asked, “Your core mandate is to develop local materials. Can you tell us the local raw materials you have developed in the areas of health, brewery, construction, science, and technology, or agriculture? “Just give us the synopsis of what you have developed or generated for local industries. Tell us about your breakthrough.”
Professor Ibrahim replied, “We have developed two varieties of Sorghum. We collaborated with agricultural research institutes, pharmaceutical industries because we produce ethanol from it and that is the basic raw material for the production of sanitizers.
“Also from the same Sorghum, we developed other products like Glucose syrup, livestock feeds, material for breweries, and starch.”
When asked if Nigeria is ready to stay independent from products like sorghum, Professor Ibrahim said: “We have not reached that stage. It goes through processes. We have tested it now but the stage we are now in the pilot stage.
“That pilot stage will now lead to the optimisation of the products. At that pilot stage, we would now see if what we have finally done is technically feasible or commercially viable. We have to determine that.
“After we had determined that, we will now ask relevant industries to take them for mass production. In our 30 years of research activities, we are still the largest research Institute. But to be candid with you, we are making progress.
“For now, we have developed technology to optimise Kilishi production. Research activities take time.”
Folasade Tinubu-Ojo, the daughter of National Leader of the All Progressive Congress(APC)Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is on rampage.
Folasade Tinubu-Ojo who is also the Iyaloja General of Lagos has shut down Nigeria’s equivalent of the silicon valley, the Computer Village, which is the hub of ICT accessories in Nigeria.
She gave her aides the order, who invaded the village overnight removed signboards of the various associations domiciled in the village with the order that no shop should open for business.
That has been the case. Her order was carried out at a time, when many are just recovering from the lockdown, following the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic. At her behest, Nigerians who survive daily on income from the Computer Village have been locked out.
We gathered that her grievance was the refusal of about 5 million businessmen, some of them experts inhabiting the hub to pay the imposed levy of N1000 per day , irrespective of about 15 existing associations, all registered by the Federal Government, in what many have described as political move to keep the area under control.
When our correspondent visited the area, all the shops were under lock and key, no business was ongoing with the situation very tense at the moment. Sources informed us that the situation will likely persist in the coming days.
Some shop owners who spoke said they will never submit to her authority. They wonder how Folasade Tinubu- Ojo will want to wield her influence in a hub where she has no shop. They told us that leadership in the market is based on democratic election and challenged her to put up a candidate when elections are due.
We also gathered that the hub had already succumbed to a Baba Oloja who also owned no shop in the area but that this time, it will be fight to finish. Sources informed us that the relevant association may go to court stop this impunity by the Iyaloja General of Lagos.
Last year, members of the Computer Village protested her decision to impose Iyaloja on them. Folashade Tinubu-Ojo who addressed the issue said the protesters were ill-informed.
“According to our constitution, I can choose anybody from any local government in the state to head the market, all the Iyaloja and Babaloja in all the Lagos markets are my representatives in the market where they operate.
“Kindly educate them that phones, handsets, computers are commodities. They cannot tell us they are not pepper sellers, everybody cannot be textile dealers; they can’t tell us that computer village will be exonerated from other markets. We have the right to choose for them Iyaloja and Babaloja.
“Those people protesting never approached me to complain. They don’t have the initiative that the person leading the protest has finished his tenure and wants to remain in power…
“Computer village is not just an ICT hub, there are a lot of commodities being sold there; nobody can say it is wrong to select a babaloja and iyaloja for the market. Those that have been selected were not selected because they are Yoruba, in some of our markets in Lagos we have Igbos that were selected as market leaders,” Tinubu-Ojo said.
The Federal Government plans to tax foreign digital service providers offering services to Nigerians and earning revenue in naira.
Some of these service providers which are video streaming sites, social media platforms, and companies that offer downloads of digital contents are expected to pay digital tax to the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, had issued the Companies Income Tax (Significant Economic Presence) Order, 2020 as an amendment of the Finance Act 2019.
The order aimed to impose tax on a foreign entity with respect to certain services or digital transactions if it had a Significant Economic Presence in Nigeria.
It further stated that the finance minister may by order, determine what constituted SEP in Nigeria.
Netflix, Facebook, Twitter, among others are some of these foreign companies that offer digital video and advertising services to Nigerians.
Others like Alibaba and Amazon generate revenue from Nigeria by processing and transmitting data collected about users in Nigeria, provision of goods or services directly or through a digital platform or offer intermediate services that link suppliers and customers in Nigeria.
The new regulation would apply to companies with income of N25m or equivalent in other currencies from Nigeria in a year and those with a Nigerian domain name (.ng) or a website address in the country.
The SEP order mandated foreign companies with sustained interactions with persons in Nigeria and customising their digital platforms to target persons in Nigeria by stating the prices of its products or services in naira to pay taxes.
According to the Act, a foreign entity providing technical services such as training, advertising, supply of personnel, professional, management or consultancy services shall have a SEP in Nigeria in any accounting year if it earns any income or receives any payment from a person resident in Nigeria or a fixed base or agent of a foreign entity in Nigeria.
However, payments made to employees of a foreign entity or for teaching in an educational institution are exempted.
Analysts at PricewaterhouseCoopers said some of the affected foreign digital companies would be required to register for income taxes in Nigeria and file annual tax returns even if they did not have a physical presence in Nigeria.
They added that Nigerian resident businesses (as well as the fixed bases of non-resident companies) that have transactions with the affected non-resident companies would also be required to account for withholding tax on some of the payments made to these foreign companies.
PwC raised concerns as to how the FIRS would enforce compliance without international consensus, as a number of the companies affected might be outside the territorial reach of the agency.
According to the consulting firm, the problem will also be exacerbated where the companies sell their products and services directly to individual consumers in Nigeria.
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State has tested positive for coronavirus.
The state Commissioner for Information, John Kalu, made this known in a statement on Monday.
The commissioner said the governor has since gone into isolation as required by the protocols of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
He said, “Recall that on Saturday, 30th May, 2020, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu volunteered his sample for COVID-19 test and subsequently directed members of the state Executive Council and those of the inter-ministerial committee on COVID-19 to submit themselves for the same test.
“On Tuesday, 2nd June, 2020, the result of Governor Ikpeazu’s test returned negative.
“On Thursday, 4th June, 2020, the governor submitted another sample at the Nigeria Center For Disease Control laboratory for confirmation and the result returned positive.
“As a result, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has gone into isolation, as required by relevant NCDC protocols, and he is being managed by a competent team of medical practitioners with a view to nursing him back to good health.”
The Anambra State axis of the River Niger Bridge on Friday morning was reportedly gutted by fire, The PUNCH reports.
It was gathered the fire emanated from a truck that went in inflames on the bridge.
The Public Relations Officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps in Anambra State, Paschal Anigbo, confirmed the incident to our correspondent.
He said, “A truck is currently on fire on the River Niger Bridge, this morning Friday 5 June, 2020.
“The Fire Service has been contacted.”
Our correspondent learnt that there had been some agitation in some quarters over the barricade of a section of the bridge by the Anambra State Government as a measure to check influx of passengers into the state as a result of the lockdown occassioned by coronavirus pandemic.
