09/28/17

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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

The Federal High Court. Yola has ordered the remand of former Adamawa PDP Chairman, Alhaji Abdurrahman Bobboi, in prison for allegedly diverting food meant for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
The court also remanded Mr Sanda Lamurde, a former Commissioner for Finance, and Mr. Feredan George, a former Chief Store Officer of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).
Justice Bilkisu Aliyu gave the order on Wednesday, at the hearing of a case of alleged forgery and stealing brought against the trio by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).
The accused are facing 16 charges bordering on forgery, theft and fraud.
According to the EFCC Counsel, Mr Abubakar Aliyu, the suspects were arraigned following a petition received from members of Agricultural Transformation Agro-Allied Farmers Cooperative Union, Adamawa chapter.
The union, in its petition to the EFCC, had alleged that the loan granted to Adamawa State farmers, from the Central Bank of Nigeria. were not disbursed to them.
It claimed that the funds were diverted into the purchase of food for IDPs by the state government.
Aliyu said that after investigation, the commission decided to arraign the suspects over the said transaction.
He alleged that the accused persons took advantage of their membership of the State Committee on the Welfare of the IDPs, to perpetrate crime.
According to him, Lamurde, who served under former governor Bala Ngillari, was the chairman of the committee while Bobboi, a former Chief Protocol Officer to the governor, was a member.
“The suspects conspired among themselves and diverted the funds amounting to N587 million released by the Adamawa State Government to buy food and other basic needs of IDPs,” he said.
He said that the crime was committed between March and May, 2015.
The judge, who adjourned the case to Nov. 10 for trial, ordered the accused persons to be remanded in prison custody pending the determination of their bail application.(NAN)
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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

A Bill seeking to give legal backing to the Nigeria Police Development Fund passed into second reading on Wednesday.

The passage of the bill will enable the Police to receive  over N540 billion annually for the Nigerian Police as development fund when passed into law.
The bill is titled: “A bill for an Act to establish the Nigeria Police Development Fund and for related matters.”

According to the sponsor of the bill, Senator Abu Ibrahim, the proposed bill seeks to provide legal framework for the management and control of the special intervention fund to be known as Police Development Fund.

The fund is to be created for the training and retraining of personnel of the Nigeria Police Force, provision of equipment, offices and barracks accommodation and related facilities to enhance the security service delivery of the police.

Leading debate on the bill, Senator Ibrahim said he is convinced that the enactment of the bill into law will encourage the police to put in their best and serve the country better.

Part of the financial implication of the bill includes an amount consisting 0.5 per cent of the total revenue accruing to the Federation Account; 5 per cent of the net profit of companies operating businesses in Nigeria; and 30 per cent of monies from cyber security fund.

While shedding light on the bill, Ibrahim disclosed that the total amount of funds expected to go to Police annually is over N540 billion.

The lawmaker, who is also the chairman of Senate Committee on the Police, proposed that to enlarge the funding, the collection of Value Added Tax on petroleum products, although VATable, should be included.

Giving a break down on how the police will get the annual budget of N540 billion, Ibrahim said with only 2 per cent of VAT income from petroleum products set aside for the Nigeria Police Force, will translate to approximate earning of N51.76 billion at 2015 consumption of petroleum products.

He proposed that additional funding that could be explored for the fund is increase in VAT rate from 5 per cent to between 7.5 per cent and 10 per cent, with 2 per cent of the increase allocated to the Fund.
The increase, he said, will generate on annual basis a minimum of N25 billion.

Ibrahim said the implementation of the proposal would require an amendment to the VAT Act in its entirety to avoid the increase being seen as an additional cost.

He explained that the proposed increase was informed by the fact that the 5 per cent VAT rate regime operational in the country is the lowest in the West African sub-region.

He said: “The implication of the estimate is that the entire sum of N9,250,565,307 projected for all subheads in the overhead cost for police formations and command in the 2017 budget is not even enough to provide minimal fueling and maintenance cost for police operational vehicles for five months.

“The basic requirement to provide adequate and appropriate items of kits for police personnel annually is N14,583,671,264 as against the sum of N752,298,724 earmarked in the 2017 budget.”
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Latest Reality Blog is a legal blog where you are updated on online latest news, gist, entertainment, events, motivational text, and genue articles.

Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, says the ministry is working hard to ensure that the 2018 budget proposal will be sent to the National Assembly in January.
Udoma, represented by Mr Aso Vakporoye, Deputy Director, Economic Growth in the ministry, spoke in Abuja on Wednesday during the public presentation and capacity building on 2017 agriculture budget.
“For 2018, the Federal Government part of it has been concluded with hope that it will be submitted to the National Assembly in January.
“Government is putting more effort to address the issue of dry season farming because when the budget is passed on time, it will enable it provide funds for farmers promptly,’’ he said.
Udoma said with the effort of relevant stakeholders, the issue of late passage of budget would be addressed.
Mr Ken Ukaoha, President, National Association of Nigeria Traders (NANTS), said that the agricultural sector presently contributed more than 22 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
Ukaoha, represented by Mr Nwalabu Legborsi, Head of Legal of NANTS, said investment in the agricultural sector had the greatest potential to move a good number of people from poverty compared to other sectors.
“In the recent times, emphasis has been laid on the diversification of the economy, especially the agricultural sector, which employs a greater number of the country’s population.
“Some initiatives, such as consuming `Made in Nigeria’ products, have also been promoted as way to encourage domestic production of agricultural goods for the country,’’ he said.
Ukaoha said the association would engage government to improve the quantity and quality of investment in the agriculture sector through the instrumentality of the budget.
According to him, stakeholders input have somewhat changed the pattern of cut and paste budgeting in the country.
“Through analysis of the Federal Agricultural budgets, especially with Ministry of Agriculture as the major focus, obvious savings have been made through the slashing of frivolous budgeted funds when the previous and preceding years appropriations are compared,’’ he said.
Ukaoha said that the agricultural sector was underfunded when compared with other countries of similar socioeconomic status.
He said the meeting would x-ray the 2017 budgeted funds for agricultural and how it affected the rural small scale framers who were the major producers of the food products.
Mr Tunde Jimoh, the Budget Research Consultant of the association, said Nigeria was a net importer of foods and its farmers could not compete with their counterparts elsewhere in the world.
Jimoh said agriculture was the least funded when compared with other sectors.
He said the country needed to adopt new technologies to produce more food and review the funding for agriculture.
Jimoh said that most states had not embraced the idea of open budget system.
According to him, Open Budget Initiative is a global research and advocacy programme to promote public access to budget information and the adoption of accountable budget systems.
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