Author: Chronicle Editor

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has collected a total sum of N1.782 trillion tax revenue between January to July 2017. This figure represents an increase in tax revenue of N224.140 billion when compared to N1. 558 trillion amount collected within the same period in 2016. The FIRS Executive Chairman, Tunde Fowler, spoke in Abuja yesterday when he appeared before the Senate committee on Finance on the agency’s 2017 budget. Of the amount, Petroleum Profits Tax (PPT) stood at N636, 006 billion, while the Service realised the sum of N1.146 trillion from non-oil taxes Companies Income Tax (CIT), Value Added…

Leaders and members of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Mushin Local Government and Odi Olowo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State on Tuesday demanded the expulsion of the party’s National Legal Adviser, Muiz Banire from the party over series of anti-party activities and embezzlement of campaign funds. The protesters led by a chieftain of the party in the area, Mr Femi Martins, said they were constrained to make the demand owing to Banire’s several excesses and public utterances which were aimed at causing public disaffection and electoral misfortune against the party, particularly during the forthcoming Local Government election…

A Nigerian woman whose sister was refused entry to the United Kingdom to give her a stem cell transplant has died on Tuesday from leukaemia. May Brown, 24, who had a three-year-old daughter, Selina, hit the headlines last year after pleading with the Home Office to allow her sister into the UK. According to the family, the Home Office said it was “not satisfied” that her sister Martha, from Nigeria, would be a genuine visitor or had the funds to cover the costs of the trip. But that decision was overturned following a campaign and the stem cell transplant was…

Denied an education by the Islamist insurgency of militant group Boko Haram, tens of thousands of children across the Lake Chad region are instead tuning into lessons broadcast over the radio, the United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF) said on Tuesday. The radio syllabus is providing lessons on literacy and numeracy, and staying safe amid the violence, to about 200,000 displaced and out-of-school children in the Far North region of Cameroon and Niger’s southern Diffa region, according to UNICEF. “The level of boredom among children in camps for the displaced is tremendous,” said UNICEF spokesman Patrick Rose. “With this radio education…

The House of Representatives has claimed that Ministries Departments and Agencies’ (MDAs) are duplicating projects funded by international donors in their budgetary proposals. Alhaji Babangida Ibrahim, the Chairman, House Committee on Finance, made the feelings of the house known at a retreat organised by the House Committee on appropriation in Abuja. Ibrahim, therefore, urged the executive to identify projects being funded by international donors but were re-presented by MDAs in their budget proposals. “I am aware that as a house, we have been facing a lot of challenges when it comes to the issue of identifying international donor funds and…

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) on Tuesday said the recent video showing its officials assaulting the driver of a moving vehicle in the FCT was manipulated. The Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, disclosed this in a statement issued by the Public Education Officer of the FRSC, Mr Bisi Kazeem, in Abuja. Oyeyemi said investigation revealed that the video released by the driver of the vehicle only told one side of the story, adding that the driver would be prosecuted to deter others. “An investigation panel revealed that a patrol team flagged down a driver for routine checks. READ: 214,952…

Some 214,952 candidates cheated in the May-June West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and their results have been withheld by the authorities. Mr. Olu Adenipekun, Head of National Office of the West African Examination Council, WAEC, announced this in Lagos as he also announced the cheering news of a seven percent improvement in the number of candidates that passed the examination with five credits. Last year, 52.9 percent of the candidates recorded the feat. The number jumped to 59.22 percent this year, out of the 1,559,662 candidates that sat for the examination. Adenipekun said WAEC is still investigating the…

Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has dredged out the negatives about Lagos, Nigeria’s business capital and urged investors to abandon it and flee to his Ondo State. In a rare sales pitch by a governor, Akeredolu wondered why investors are concentrating their investments in “traffic-ridden and human congested” Lagos State, and asked them to leave to come to his state, which “is blessed with abundant resources”. He made the statement on Monday. The Lagos State government is yet to respond. Akeredolu spoke in Akure, Ondo state capital while welcoming the delegation of Federal Government Industrialization and Economic Diversification team led by the…

Tanzanian police have detained a pastor after two worshippers drowned during baptism in a river near Rombo in the north of the country. The two victims were overwhelmed by the current of the River Ungwasi, a police spokesman has told the BBC. It is not clear how the pastor and the other worshippers involved managed to survive, the BBC’s Odeo Sirari says. They are members of a local church, Shalom, which is part of the charismatic Christian movement. READ: R Kelly denies holding women in ‘abusive cult’ Baptism in a river rather than in church is seen as a way…

R&B singer R Kelly has denied allegations that he is holding several young women in an “abusive cult”. The singer’s lawyer said he would work “diligently and forcibly to pursue his accusers and clear his name”. A BuzzFeed report accuses the singer of brainwashing women, who got closer to him in an effort to boost their musical careers. One of the women said she was “not being brainwashed”. Kelly denies any wrongdoing. He has faced previous accusations of sexual misconduct, but was never found guilty. The report, which quoted three unnamed sets of parents, said they had not seen or…