Good day, good citizens of Nigeria, here are headlines from Nigerian Newspapers that may interest you today, Monday, December 13, 2021.
1. We won’t reverse travel ban over FG’s threat – UK [Punch Newsapaper]
The British High Commission on Sunday said the United Kingdom would not reverse its travel ban on Nigeria because of a threat of retaliation by the Federal Government.
The spokesman for the British High Commission, Dean Hurlock, said this in response to an inquiry by The PUNCH on Sunday over a statement by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, that the UK, Canada and Saudi Arabia would be put on Nigeria’s travel ban on Tuesday.
2. Reps invite Malami, Adebayo, FIRS as controversy emerges over tax holidays [Punch Newspaper]
The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has invited the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investments, Niyi Adebayo; Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN); and the Federal Inland Revenue Service to come forward and to explain why some companies were not given a certificate of acceptance before being allowed to enjoy tax holidays.
The committee issued the invitation based on a disagreement between the lawmakers and the management of Nigeria Agip Oil Company over the desirability of the certificate as a prerequisite for enjoying tax holiday by companies operating in Nigeria.
Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke (PDP), had at the investigative hearing on Friday insisted that the certificate of acceptance was a necessity to claim capital allowances and enjoy tax holiday.
3. Court dismisses El-Rufai, others’ objection to Abacha’s N1.5bn property [Punch Newspaper]
Efforts by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State and three others to stop the hearing in a suit filed against them by the family of the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, have met a brick wall as a Kaduna High Court has dismissed their objection.
The Head of the family, Mohammed Abacha, had dragged El-Rufai and others to court accusing them, among others, of trespassing on the family’s huge expanse of land housing the Durbar Hotel in Kaduna, unlawful demolition of the hotel and planning to sell it, having purportedly revoked the Certificate of Occupancy.
4. Buhari never promised Tinubu running mate, his boys fire back at Akande [ThisDay Newspaper]
The last may not have been heard of some of the revelations in the newly published autobiography by a former governor of Osun State and erstwhile protem national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, who claimed in his book, “My Participations”, that President Muhammadu Buhari, reneged in his promise to make a former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, his running mate ahead of the 2015 elections.
But many of Buhari’s close allies and foot soldiers, who were privy to some of the negotiations and horse-trading that preceded the 2015 elections, dismissed the account by Akande as being twisted and far from the truth, because according to them, “Buhari truly and only promised Tinubu a workable partnership, which included conceding the vice presidential slot to the South-west as a bloc, not to exactly make him his running mate.”
5. NNPC posts N141.96bn trading surplus, N89.2bn operating revenue loss in June [ThisDay Newspaper]
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has revealed that it recorded a total trading surplus of N141.96 billion in June 2021, compared to a deficit of N37.46 billion in May this year.
The information was contained in a statement on the June 2021 figures of the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR), signed by the company’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr Garba Muhammad, a copy of which was obtained yesterday.
The statement said NNPC’s trading surplus or trading deficit was derived after deduction of the expenditure profile from the revenue for the period under review.
However, during the month under review, the NNPC Group said its operating revenue, as compared to May 2021, decreased by 9.07 per cent or N89.27 billion to stand at N894.64billion. It added that the expenditure for the month decreased by 29.32 per cent or N299.44 billion, to stand at N721.93billion.
