Business
FIRS Acting Chairman, Aina Said Fowler Stepped On Toes
The FIRS Acting Chairman, Abiodun Aina has disclosed that Mr. Babatunde Fowler, the outgoing Chairman of the revenue agency stepped on toes during his stay in office.
Aina, while thanking Fowler for the tremendous transformation experienced in FIRS. This he said during the hand-over ceremony on Monday, December 9, 2019.
The Acting Federal Inland Revenue Service Chairman also said that Mr. Fowler stepped on toes in his first term as FIRS chairman.
In the words of Abiodun Aina;
"Thank you Mr. Chairman, my brother, my boss, and my friend. As you hand-over to me today, I asked myself what am I running. You laid s solid foundation and also fought a good fight.
“Within this short period that I will be holding forth, I promise you to stabilize the ship, by God’s grace. You have achieved a lot within 4 years, you transformed FIRS, and you modernized it with countless innovations. The agency has achieved great height under your watch.
Still counting the achievements of the outgoing chairman; Aina said;
"You repositioned the Federal Inland Revenue Service by introducing several programs: VAIDS, tax amnesty program, increased the number of taxpayers to over 20 million within 4 years, promoted healthy collaborations among states through the joint tax board, robust sharing of information among states just to mention a few
"Regarding your speech, change is usually resisted, so, you stepped on toes
President Muhammadu Buhari has already nominated Muhammad M. Nami as the new Chairman of the agency
Modibbo Kawu, the DG of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, has been put on suspension by President Buhari. This came following his corruption charges by the Independent Corrupt Practices, ICPC.
This development was confirmed by Armstrong Idachaba, NBC’s Director of Broadcast Monitoring. Further, the most senior director in the commission has been directed to take over from Modibbo Kawu.
Modibbo Kawu is currently facing a 12-count charge bordering on money laundering, abuse of office, and misleading a public officer with the intent of defrauding the government.
So, this contravenes Section 26 (1) (c) of the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offenses Act 2000 and punishable under Section 19 of the same Act.
Beisdes, Modibbo was first arraigned in May 2019 over the alleged misappropriation of N 2.5 billion for the digital switch-over (DSO) program of the government.
The popular Mile 12 market in Lagos is currently engulfed in fire. This is coming barely seven days after a similar fire happened at another market in the Ajah area of Lagos
The fire at the Mile 12 market started in the early hours of Thursday 13th February. A report has it that the fire is still raging as the officials of the fire service are working to put out the fire.
Recall that the Mile 12 market is known for the sales of perishable items like fruits, vegetables and many more.
An early morning fire on Tuesday at the Atakumosa Central market in Ilesa, Osun State has destroyed several properties worth millions of Naira.
Information gathered revealed that the fire started around 1 am and continued for over two hours before it was put out at about 3:45 am by the efforts of the fire service in Osun State.
Besides, it was also discovered that the inferno started without knowing the cause and its intensity could not be contained by the initial set of people available.
Several shops were destroyed as it spread from one shop to another. Osun State Police PR, Folasade Odoro confirmed the incident and said the police deployed men to the scene to prevent looting of shops by miscreants.
However, she said the value of destruction cannot be ascertained but said many shops were razed by the fire.
