File photo of Senator Buruji Kashamu during his tenure as lawmaker at the Red Chamber of the Senate.
A former lawmaker, Buruji Kashamu, who represented Ogun East Senatorial district in the 8th National Assembly between 2015 and 2019, Saturday died of complications arising from the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).
This was disclosed by a former lawmaker, Ben Murray-Bruce, who represented Bayelsa East same time with Kashamu.
“I have just lost my good friend of forever to COVID-19.
“Until his death, Senator Buruji Kashamu and I were inseparable.
“He died today at First Cardiology Consultants, in Lagos.
“May his gentle soul rest in peace. I pray his family and loved ones the fortitude to bear this heavy loss,” Murray-Bruce wrote on his verifiable Twitter handle.
Born on May 19, 1958, Kashamu, a billionaire businessman-cum-politician, was tested positive for the deadly virus some few days ago but later confirmed to be negative by doctors at a Lagos isolation centre.
But, his condition suddenly became deteriorated and was moved to First Cardiology Hospital in Lagos.
It was reported that Kashamu’s health became deteriorated because he had underlying chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart and lung diseases, including high blood pressure which weakened his immune system.
As part of efforts to cushion economic downturn occasioned by the effect of COVID-19, Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun has granted various tax reliefs to residents of the state.
In a statement on Saturday, the Governor said he has directed the Ogun State Internal Revenue Service (OIRS) to immediately effect these tax reliefs to reduce the COVID-19 induced burden on taxpayers in the state.
According to Governor Abiodun, the types of taxes that taxpayers will enjoy reliefs include: “6-month deadline extension for filling of 2019 income tax returns by the self employed/informal sector from March 31, 2020 to September 30.
“8-month extension of filling of 2019 annual PAYE returns by PAYE operators/tax agents from January 31, 2020 to September 30, as well as complete waiver of interest and penalty for late filling for the extension period.
“Complete waiver of interest and penalty for late remittance of monthly PAYE for the extension period.
“Same waiver for late payment of Direct Assessment/Personal Income Tax by the self employed from January 1, 2020 to December 31.
“Waiver of weekly tax by operators and promoters of pool and betting businesses from April 1, 2020 to June 30”, the categories stated in parts.
Prince Abiodun also stated that: “The Tax Audit Reconciliation Committee (TARC) will also henceforth adopt video conferencing as the default mode for their meetings to continue ensuring ease of doing business while maintaining physical distancing.”
He therefore urged taxpayers in Ogun State to make the best use of the reliefs as they make necessary payments to the State’s designated accounts in approved banks.
Nigerian Troops fighting bandits in the North-West of the country have been urged to bring a decisive end to the scourge in the zone.
The call was made by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, Alhaji Ali Ndume, at a press briefing held at the Nigerian Army Super Camp in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State during an inspection exercise of Nigerian Army’s Operation Sahel Sanity.
Senator Ndume reckoned that the operation has recorded much success, which is said to be evident in the resumption of farming and commercial activities in the affected Local Government Areas (LGAs).
While assuring that the National Assembly will work with the executive arm of government to provide resettlement for people who are still internally displaced, the lawmaker however charged the Army on doing more to stop attacks on rural communities and especially remote areas of the forest.
In his speech to newsmen earlier, the Head of Faskari Local Government Administration, Malam Lawal Ibrahim, said that the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the area has reduced from five thousand to two thousand in the last two months.
Participants in the inspection exercise were the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai; Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Army, Alhaji Abdurrazaq Namdas; and Special Adviser to Governor Aminu Bello Masari on Security Matters, Alhaji Ibrahim Katsina.
A file photo of Nigeria's lawmakers in the House of Representatives, also known as the Green Chamber.
The last may not have been heard of allegations leveled against members of the National Assembly by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, as House of Representatives caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called for an independent investigative panel.
In a letter to the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, PDP caucus leader, Kingsley Chinda said only an independent probe panel consisting of judges, to probe the Minister’s allegations against NASS members will come up with credible findings.
Chinda, In the letter titled “Halt the slide’, said the credibility of the House has “slide to a new low.”
He added that the Minister’s accusations have created a serious cause for concern.
Chinda reckoned that the version of the Minister’s letter to the House, published in the social media specifically mentioned names of some members of the National Assembly.
in his reaction to the purported letter containing the thought of PDP House caucus on the matter, the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Lanre Lasisi, denied having received such letter.
Lasisi said: “the office of the speaker is not in receipt of any of such letter from the official PDP or Minority Caucus leadership of the House led by Rep. Ndudi Elumelu.
Residents of Kaura Namoda and it’s environ in Zamfara State have cried out to Government for help as their community is threatened by flood.
The call for intervention in the area was made in statement by the spokesman of Kaura Namoda Empowerment and Development (KANEDEF), Abdulrazak Bello.
Bello in the statement appealed to all concerned authorities to do the needful to save lives and property of residents through enlightenment, counselling and directives, especially to those living around riverine areas.
According to Bello, the quantity of water overflow, the danger it posed to the area and the destruction to the community as witnessed by officials of KANEDEF who visited the River Gagare in the early hours of (Friday), calls for urgent action to salvage people of the town from danger.
in a chat, the officer in charge of Nigeria Merological Agency, Gusau Office, Muhammad Garba, told Radio Nigeria that the Agency had earlier issued flood warning to people of Maru, Gusau, Gummi, Shinkafi, Tsafe and Zurmi Local Government Areas including their neighboring towns which Kaura Namoda is among them.
To avoid impending danger to lives, Radio Nigeria reported further that Garba urged residents living in the riverine areas to vacate for their safety.
River Gagagare is said to be the major River that crossed the city of Kaura Namoda to the north.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, accompanied by aides during a tour of the State's Organic Farm in Badagry, Friday, August 7, 2020.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Friday visited Badagry, where he promised to revive a 279-hectare Avia-Igborosun Organic Farm, which was acquired by the state government in 2012 for commercial agricultural project.
He assured that his administration was ready to revive the abandoned farmland for the take-off of Lagos State Food Production Park project.
The governor disclosed that the state would be engaging private sector to secure an investment into the project, which, when completed, he said, would create thousands of direct jobs and improve the wellbeing of the residents.
“I have been fully briefed about this project but I considered it necessary to personally embark on this journey to Badagry in order to take assessment and see what exactly we need to do in terms of intervention.
“After taking a tour of the project site, what I observed is that the entire project looks more as a job that has not been completed. Therefore, we need to improve on the interventions to the Ministry of Agriculture.
“With very minimal resources, we have seen what the ministry has done to keep the project afloat. Government will raise the resources and turn around this project to the level it should be. We will need to deploy more resources to revive and scale up all the machinery and systems put already in place. We will complete the project and open it for commercial production,” he said.
The governor added that the revival of Badagry Organic Farm and creation of more food production parks across the state were part of the strategies designed by his administration to increase food security level from 20 per cent to 50 per cent, thereby raising Lagos’ food sufficiency.
He noted that the project would give rise to similar agro-allied businesses that would open up Badagry’s economy for more growth, while also boosting its tourism business.
Sanwo-Olu said: “Lagos is a big state in terms of population, but we also can intervene in our food production value chain. What we are also trying to do with the revival of the project is that, we want to produce various agricultural products we can consume internally in order to reduce our dependence on external food sources. The Food Production Park, which we are creating across the state, will be a trigger to other value-added agricultural production our citizens can provide.”
As part of the move to turn around the Organic Farm, Sanwo-Olu promised a total rehabilitation of Igborosun Road that leads to the farm.
Some of the agricultural projects to be developed for commercial production in the organic farm include fishing, poultry, piggery and agro-forestry, among others.
Sanwo-Olu also inspected a 105-bed Mother and Child Care (MCC) recently completed by the state government in the premises of Badagry General Hospital. The MCC would be commissioned in September, the governor assured.
During a tour of the hospital, Sanwo-Olu proposed an expansion of the Accident and Emergency Department. The project, he said, would take off in the next nine months.
The governor also stopped at Marina area of Badagry town, where the state government would be building a modern jetty. The project, Sanwo-Olu explained, was part of his administration’s blueprint to promote waterways transportation across the state.
A collage of All Progressives Congress (APC) stalwart, Bola Tinubu and Edo State Governor, also Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the September 19 Edo Gubernatorial Election, Godwin Obaseki
National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Friday condemned Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, for resorting to the strong-arm tactics of dictators over crisis rocking the state House of Assembly.
Tinubu, in a terse statement titled: “In Defence of Constitutional Democracy,” which he personally signed, said: “The recent actions of the Governor of Edo State represent the gravest possible assault on constitutional democracy and the rule of law and escalation of violence and tension in the state he purports to govern.
“Not satisfied with making a mockery of our constitution by blocking the timely inauguration of two-thirds of the elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly, Governor Obaseki has now resorted to the strong-arm tactics of dictators.
“First, he sponsors hoodlums to deface, indeed destroy, parts of the House of Assembly Building in Benin, feigning the building is undergoing renovation. Then, he imports sand and gravels to prevent access to the assembly complex. In effect, the man has spent state funds to thwart the very apparatus of the state government he was sworn to uphold. He has squandered public money to defeat the very will of the public. This is tragic beyond words.
“As a pretext for his refusal to allow Edo State House of Assembly to function, Governor Obaseki’s actions are perverse. This is a cowardly act and a move to thwart representative democracy in Edo. No renovation has been planned for the state house building. No appropriation was made in the state’s budget. The only reason any renovation could be deemed necessary is the destruction wrought by his own goons.
“Governor Obaseki’s governance of Edo State recalls the worst excesses of our military past and represents a direct threat to the democratic order. By his refusal to permit duly elected members of the Edo State House of Assembly to perform their constitutional duties, Governor Obaseki betrayed contempt for the people of his state and, unfortunately, his ignorance of Nigeria’s constitutional order. As a Governor he ought to know better than to obstruct the functioning of his own legislature, but perhaps he is in need of a quick lesson.”
Tinubu added: “The legislative function is, perhaps, the most foundational obligation of any government. In the UK, the Parliament was famously said to be “that supreme and absolute power, which gives life and motion to the English government.” In most democratic systems, the legislature is the arm of government containing within itself the people’s representatives in government.
“As such, the legislative arm is critical. It is an important symbol of democratic governance. The voice, will and desires of the people are reposed in their elected representatives sent to the legislature to express and distill their amorphous will into the laws and codes by which the society has agreed to live.
“In the context of a constitutional democracy such as ours, the legislature’s authority stems, in effect, from the recognition that it is the authentic mouthpiece of the people, entrusted with the responsibility of representing their collective will and the power to interpret and mould it into the laws of the land. It is, in short, not to be toyed with as a plaything of an errant and ill-disciplined governor. Undermine the legislature and you imperil democracy and allow governance to descend into anarchy.
“Indeed, it is no coincidence that of the three arms of government, the powers of the legislature are enumerated first, in our Constitution. The legislature is the authority imbued with the power to make laws for the peace, order and good governance of the federation and states. Indeed, the Constitution makes clear that a Governor’s role primarily extends to the maintenance and implementation of the laws set down for him by his state’s legislature.”
Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor, alleged that Obaseki’s conduct in the past year was undoubtedly impeachable.
“In placing himself above the legislature, deciding who gets in and who is shut out, Governor Obaseki not only places himself above our nation’s constitutional order, he places himself above the people of Edo State whose representatives he so brazenly tramples upon. One can only wonder, given the desperation with which he has acted and his belligerent refusal to honour the free choice of the people of his own state, what mortal offence the majority members he has shut out have committed to warrant such treatment.
“These legislators have made no threat to impeach the Governor. Their only desire is to peacefully perform the duties asked of them by the constituents who elected them. What, then, is their offense? By all appearances, the Governor is punishing these legislators for their loyalty to a party that is no longer his own. If every governor behaves as he, obstructing the performance of any legislator who does not pledge to him their undying fealty, the entire edifice of democratic governance in Nigeria would grind to a complete halt.
“In his campaign for re-election, Governor Obaseki promises to represent and defend the interests of all the people of his state. Yet, so blinded is he by his personal ambition, he sees no irony in the fact that his actions have denied two-thirds of the people of his state their right to representation in the state’s only legislative chamber.
“Governor Obaseki must think the people of his state to be as foolhardy and ignorant as he, for even as he courts their votes, he continues to make a mockery of the institution of democracy in his own House of Assembly. If Governor Obaseki believes the people are not aware of this inherent irony, he will undoubtedly learn the cost of this grave miscalculation in the fullness of time.
“The rule of law and preservation of democracy is too important to sacrifice at the altar of any one man’s ambition. Governor Obaseki’s woeful leadership of Edo State will hopefully be brought to an end soon by the very people whose rights he has so carelessly trampled upon. One can only hope that the damage he is doing to the most important of the state’s democratic institutions can just as easily be repaired.”
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, Friday directed the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to provide security for the 17 lawmakers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State.
Malami, in a letter dated August 5 based on a petition to his office by Idahosa-West Chambers, said the security measure has become necessary to prevent breakdown of law and order.
The 17 lawmakers, who are supporting APC governorship candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, have been locked in a battle to access Edo State House of Assembly complex on Ring Road, Benin against seven legislators loyal to Governor Godwin Obaseki.
President Muhammadu Buhari Friday in Abuja assented to the Companies and Allied Matters Bill, 2020 recently passed by the National Assembly.
The President’s action on this important piece of legislation, therefore, repealed and replaced the extant Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990, introducing after 30 years, several corporate legal innovations geared toward enhancing ease of doing business in the country.
Some of the innovations include:
“Filing fee reductions and other reforms to make it easier and cheaper for small and medium-sized enterprises to register and reform their businesses in Nigeria;
“Allowing corporate promoters of companies to establish private companies with a single member or shareholder, and creating limited liability partnerships and limited partnerships to give investors and business people alternative forms of carrying out their business in an efficient and flexible way; Innovating processes and procedures to ease the operations of companies, such as introducing Statements of Compliance; replacing ‘authorised share capital’ with minimum share capital to reduce costs of incorporating companies; and providing for electronic filing, electronic share transfers, e-meetings as well as remote general meetings for private companies in response to the disruptions to close contact physical meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic;
“Requiring the disclosure of persons with significant control of companies in a register of beneficial owners to enhance corporate accountability and transparency; and
“Enhancing the minority shareholder protection and engagement; introducing enhanced business rescue reforms for insolvent companies; and permitting the merger of Incorporated Trustees for associations that share similar aims and objectives,” said Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.
President Muhammadu Buhari presents APC flag to the party’s governorship candidate in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. The presentation was witnessed by Chairman, APC Caretaker Committee, Gov. Mai Mala Buni of Yobe, Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano and Gov. Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi in State House on 6th Aug 2020
Credit: Femi Adesina
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday received the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and contestant in the September 19 governorship election in Edo State, Osagie Eze-Iyamu.
The President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, made this known in a statement on his Facebook page.
Adesina in the statement stated that President Buhari officially presented the APC flag to Eze-Iyamu as it is traditionally done before the party’s candidates go into polls.
The Edo gubernatorial candidate was accompanied to the State House by the APC caretaker committee Chairman and Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni and Chairman of the APC National Campaign Council for Edo State Governorship Election, also Governor of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje.
However, the former APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, who is also a former Edo State governor, was absence at the meeting.
While making comments after the meeting, the Chairman, Caretaker Committee of the APC, Mai Mala Buni said President Buhari was impressed with the performance of the candidate who emerged through a transparent process.
Eze-iyamu, however dismissed as untrue, report that four members-elect of the Edo State House of Assembly had met in his house on Thursday with the aim to impeach the Speaker of the House and elect new one.
The governorship candidate added that it is not true that President Buhari did not want to see him.
The Chairman of the APC National Campaign Council for Edo State Governorship Election and Governor of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who also commented on the politics in Edo State, described Eze-Iyamu’s contender in the forthcoming election, Godwin Obaseki, as an incumbent Governor who had not only failed but remained a liability to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Ganduje said: “I can assure you that Governor Obaseki is a liability to the PDP. I can assure you that we are contesting against a governor who failed woefully”.
According to the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) and Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, all APC governors are working to ensure victory for the party at the September 19 gubernatorial poll.
Bagudu describes as “laughable” suggestion that the party’s governors were not backing Pastor Ize-Iyamu, confirming that they were all involved in the campaign process.
Eze-Iyamu, had previously contested for the position of Governor in Edo State under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and against incumbent Governor, Godwin Obaseki, who was a member of the APC until recently when he defected to join the PDP.
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