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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission yesterday December 21, 2016 secured the conviction of one Friday David for stealing the sum of N40, 035,350.00 (Forty Million, Thirty Five Thousand, Three Hundred and Fifty Naira) belonging to Universal Steel Limited. The convict was arraigned by the Commission on April 16, 2008 on 50 counts of stealing and fraudulent false accounting before Justice M. O. Obadina of the High Court of Lagos State, Igbosere. The 87 count criminal charge was initially amended on April 23, 2009 and further amended to a sole hcount of stealing on March 7, 2016. Upon arraignment, Friday David pleaded “not guilty” to the charge preferred against him. In order to prove the case against the convict, the prosecution called 11 witnesses and tendered 38 exhibits (P1-P38). The investigation leading to the conviction commenced when the Commission received a petition on September 6, 2005 from Universal Steel Limited, the biggest Iron manufacturing Private Lim...

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, stated this in an interview with State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. She explained that the payroll system shut itself down automatically immediately the affected agencies reached their salary limit for the year. Adeosun said the problem had been recurring every year and the government had approached the National Assembly to seek approval for virement to take care of the affected agencies. The minister said with the receipt of the virement advice on Monday, the government would soon log it into the system so that the agencies could be paid. She said, “All agencies have an allocational IPPIS which is the salary platform. If, for example, an agency’s salary for the year is N12bn, what we insist they should do is to continue to pay until that N12bn. “So, instead of taking N1bn a month, the agencies are taking N1.2bn or N1.3bn. So, by the time it gets to October, many agencies had exhausted their allocation...

The Minister for Youths and Sports Development Solomon Dalung in his bid to justify how properly his ministry spent funds allocated to it says ‘funds spended are well spended’. Minister of Sports Solomon Dalung summoned to appear before the Senate committee on sports The House of Representatives committee on sports summoned Dalung and other officials to appear before it in a bid to tackle pending issues on disbursement of funds to the various federations. In a video posted by Channels Television, the sports minister who has been at the centre of criticisms denied allegations that his ministry is corrupt. “Before we left for Rio (Olympics), we wrote and requested for the release of monies appropriated for in the budget and it has not been released for the federations. “450million (Naira) was appropriated for the Olympics and we spent far far far beyond that; so monies that were given to the federation could not have been monies meant for Olympics,” Dalung stated. The state...

The Petroleum Products Prices Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has been advised by the House of Representatives to review the current price template for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS). The lower house is urging PPPRA to reduce the price to N70 per litre. A member of the house Abubaker Fulata, sponsored a motion titled “Urgent Need to Review the Petroleum Price Template. The Petroleum Products Prices Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) has been advised by the House of Representatives on Tuesday to review the current price template for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and reduce the price to N70.  This was followed by the adoption of a motion sponsored by Abubaker Fulata titled “Urgent Need to Review the Petroleum Price Template”. The lawmaker moving the motion expressed dismay over reports suggesting a possible hike in the price of petrol in the country. The federal ministry of petroleum resources has however denied the reports. According to him, the hard times are occasioned by dwindling reven...

The figure was contained in statistics from the CBN announced by the Deputy Director of CBN’s Payment Systems, Mr Sam Okojere. The Central Bank (CNB) of Nigeria says 40 per cent of the Nigerian population is yet to register with any financial institution in the country. He gave a hint of the statistics while addressing reporters at a CBN fair for small and medium scale business enterprises in Benin City, the capital of Edo State. “It’s about 40% that are not included but with the improvement in telecommunications we are looking at a reduction by 20% in 2020,” he said. The fair, which is an empowerment programme is to help micro, small and medium scale business entrepreneurs overcome basic challenges involved in setting up. Small business owners have been identified as the major force that could help the nation’s economy wriggle out of recession.

Benue Govt. Begins Campaign To Increase IGRThe Benue state government has flagged off its tax and informal sector business enumeration exercise across the state with a view to shore-up its internally generated revenue by 30%. The move follows report of non-remittances of tax revenue by the informal sector and some businesses in the formal sector. The state government, at an executive council meeting presided over by Governor Samuel Ortom, constituted a committee headed by the Commissioner of Finance to fast-track its implementation and enforce compliance.