Some Nigerians in South Africa have cried out against the xenophobic attacks on Africans in parts of the country.
In separate telephone interviews withSUNDAY PUNCH, the Nigerian migrants expressed their fear of attacks as death threats were being circulated on social media.

Itunu Bodunrin, who on Monday had attended his master’s degree graduation ceremony at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, told our correspondent that he was unable to leave the school campus afterwards due to the violence in the town.

Bodunrin forwarded a text message to our correspondent which, according to him, had been circulated among South African residents via an instant messaging mobile application, WhatsApp.

[b]In the message, signed by several groups, including the Patriotic Movement, Pan Local Forum, Unemployed Workers Forum and Anti-Crime Movement, Nigerians and other African foreigners were warned to leave the country.

It read in part, “Dear neighbour from Africa and other parts of the world, we have travelled the world and have not found one country that allows the floods of humans across its borders as South Africa is experiencing. Even in war-torn parts like Syria, Ukraine, Yemen and Somali.

“We were seven million people in Johannesburg city in 2011. Today, we have an estimated 13 million. In Johannesburg alone, you have taken over entire suburbs: Yeoville, Berea, Bez Valley, Turfontein, among many. You have even moved into rural parts of our country that have 80-per-cent unemployment, and there are no visible signs that you have jobs either.

“We want to be proudly part of the geographic construct called Africa, but we are as different from one another as Kenyans are from Nigerians; Ivorians from Chadians, etc.

“We are pleading with you to return to your home countries. Go and build up those countries so that we can all live in economic, social and political prosperity and peace as neighbours.

The genocide in this corner of Africa will be far worse than what happened in Rwanda in 1994. Then the entire continent will be condemned to ashes. Is that what you want?

“South Africans not fully employed or who were found guilty of crimes, were recently repatriated from Nigeria and rightly so.

“Our people are preparing for war against all foreigners (from Bulgaria, Pakistan and Bangladesh to Africa, north of the Limpopo) and we are all very scared. Please go home and build Africa. Millions will die if you don’t. This we can guarantee.” [/b]

Similarly, Samson Ojako, a master’s degree student studying Mathematics also at the University of KwaZulu-Natal noted that looting had been rampant for over a week.

“Those that opened their shops were attacked by the Zulu. During all of this, those of us on campus were warned by the school management to stay indoors. They said no one should leave the school premises, especially during the weekend.”

Ojako noted that a large number of Zulus often migrated from their villages into town on weekends in order to launch attacks on non-nationals.

He likened the last one week to life in a refugee camp, saying that those living on campus could not go out to shop for food.

“A lot of people are living in fear, especially the ladies. Even for us who are guys, last week, we had to move in groups,” he said.

Olawale Olawepo, another Nigerian studying for a doctorate degree in Industrial Organisation and Labour Studies said the school authorities also warned students against taking public transportation.

kayode27:
Africa and Africans better send a strong message to this barbaric lot.

Otherwise xenophobia may become fashionable to lazy Africans.

Here in NIgeria we can start with MTN, MULTI CHOICE, SHOPRITE ...

Acekidc4:
Good Move Jagaban!!

freshdude99:
Daura don turn to bus stop over night
If I take an Abuja bound flight from Lagos, I will first stop at Daura then Kaduna before Abuja
Some businessmen flexible sha o

freshdude99:
Daura don turn to bus stop over night
If I take an Abuja bound flight from Lagos, I will first stop at Daura then Kaduna before Abuja
Some businessmen flexible sha o

The Lagos State Government has sued 686 companies for evading tax to the tune of N11.1 billion.

The cases were filed at the High Court of Lagos in a bid to retrieve the money, says Chairman, Lagos Internal Revenue Service, Tunde Fowler, at a ministerial news conference on Wednesday in Ikeja, Lagos, southwest Nigeria.

He said out of the 686 people taken to court in 2014 for tax evasion, the court granted government order to collect taxes from 376 companies, amounting to N8.1 billion, but that only N771 million was recovered.

“We filed 686 cases at the State High Courts at the beginning of the year with a total liability of about N11.6 billion. Out of theses, we received destraining orders on 376 cases. This amounts to a liability of about N8.1 billion. Of this, they have paid N771 million.

“When a tax payer disagrees with the tax he is expected to pay and both the tax officials and the payer couldn’t reach a compromise, both parties go to court. And the court will grant us some order of destrain; to close that organization.

“After that destrain, and they make a payment, we will give room for the tax payer to bring additional evidence on why he cannot pay such fee. And that was why we always have difference in the amount that we took to court and the amount that was paid,” he explained.

On consumption tax, Fowler said in terms of compliance level, government had over 2,600 outfits that were paying this tax, adding that “we have their cooperation while the case was still in court.”

In the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, he disclosed that the government currently collects N23 billion on monthly basis.

“The high months of collection are usually in April, May and June. These are the months when companies declare dividends and staff go on leave and they get their leave allowance.

“In terms of our actual collection, we didn’t increase in IGR. In 2013, we had approximately N236 billion while in 2014 it was N276 billion. So we went from an average of N20 billion in 2013 to an average of N23 billion. That was one of the things that has kept the state working. The informal sector is yet to pay taxes despite the fact that some of these people get paid for their services. They are about three million people in the state. The objective of taxation is to distribute wealth,” he said.

Also speaking, Special Adviser to the Governor of the State on Taxation and Revenue, Bola Shodipo announced a 50 per cent increase in taxpayer population between 2011 and this year.
He said as a result of increased public confidence in the government of Mr. Babatunde Fashola, the taxpayer population increased from 2.7 million in 2011 to 4.5 million this year.

Shodipo, who put the population of voluntary taxpayers at 3.8 million in 2014, said aside from the traditional due recognition to the most tax compliant individuals and organisations, there was also a correspondent increase in the number of Electronic Tax Clearance Certificates issued during the year under review.

The Special Adviser said an additional 19,640 properties were enumerated during the year under review bringing the total number of properties enumerated by his office for Land Use Charge (LUC) to 663,913, adding that out of 5,893 complaints arising from the issue, 5,223 were resolved while the remaining were still pending at various stages of settlement.

Announcing an improvement in the delivery of bills by his office with the introduction of the e-billing system, Shodipo appealed to members of the public to embrace the system to enable them benefit from the improved service delivery which, according to him, informed its introduction.

Billyonaire:
Former Drug lords that were supposed to serve time together are now big time politicians in Nigeria. ~~what do we expect when the ```president-elect is even a coup plotter and `book haram spokesperson nominee.

Built2last:
I am not Yoruba but make bold to say that the only reason Nigeria is still one is because of the Yoruba people. The yoruba race was the decider in the last presidential election.

The yoruba race used the intsrumentality of the media at their disposal to rubbish GEJ and brought down his regime. take the media not for granted, the media is a split image showing you what they want you to see per time, wether true or false, the media gradually shape your perspective about people, place or thing.

From the very first time when GEJ could not stand and support the Yorubas for the position of the speakership but rather blamed it on Tinubu selling out to north. Many Yorubas decided that GEJ was finished. GEJs advisers and political permutators finished him also. they made him think that pleasing the north will make him win 2nd term. The North is power drunk and has always remained so. Wrong permutation if you ask me. If GEJ had done half of what he did to please the north for the yorubas, he would have been re-elected. GEJ pulled back action on insurgency for fear of the north and what they will tag him. He built Almajiri schools and rehabilitated dams all over the north even though it was constitutionally wrong for FG to build elementary schools. He released Almustapha which angered the west..He really did alot to please the north but in my opinion was a wrong political move. He ignored the south west that vehemently cried out on marginalisation of the region in development and political appointments. Politics is like chess. every move matters from the first and you can't ignore the prize of any bad or good move...

LAGOS—A Lagos-based lawyer and industrialist, Mr Chukwudi Atueyi, yesterday, gave vivid account of what transpired between Igbo leaders and Oba Akiolu of Lagos State which has resulted in controversy.

The lawyer who regretted the uproar that accompanied the meeting said the Oba’s statement was not directed at the whole Igbos in Lagos but jocularly to his Igbo friends that visited him.

According to him; “All the Eze Ndi Igbo honorary in Lagos went to pay HRM solidarity visit on Sunday and I was fortunate to be among those present at the said meeting. What the Oba said was fully and simply directed to only the Igbos present at the meeting who his majesty considers to be very close to him and should understand him well enough.

“You know when one talks to his very close friends and subjects, he tends to be very free with them, so he was being very free with those present at the meeting and wanted us to realize how serious and close he takes us and our votes, because he cannot imagine us giving him our words only to turn back and do the very opposite.

“He did not force us to the meeting, we were the ones that went to him on solidarity visit, so it would be very evil of us to only go and deceive him there. He only jokingly (at least as it appeared to me then) warned the people present at the meeting who he considers his own people. The said warning that we are supposed to be very conversant with since we have all the “Ëze Ndi Igbo”

present there, as that was not the first time we visited him. We are all already aware of the Yoruba culture and understood perfectly what he meant. There was no specific place he referred to all the Igbos in Lagos.

“He was only addressing the Igbos with him present there whom he considers his own people and he simply observed his culture which we all quite understood and this explains why there was applause and laughter at the end of his speech. We were expected to, thereafter, talk to our people in civilized manner to convince them and canvass for their votes if we truly believe we are capable of doing so.

“The tradition of lagoon water threat was directed only to those present at the meeting as culture demands. Though he appeared serious but we all understood it as a joke, that was why we all applauded him and made fun of it there.

“So I suspect serious politics at play here. I wouldn’t know who recorded the speech and decided to play politics with it. It is most unfair to his majesty to be portrayed in this manner and I think I owe it as a duty to speak up before things get out of hand.’’

EUROBOMBER:
[s]Everything that happened in the Oba's palace was rehearsed and well planned by the APC, Oba and the Igbo Ezes in Lagos. The only way Ambode could beat Agbaje was to pitch the Yoruba against the Igbo and that is exactly what happened. Who recorded the whole thing and why was it leaked to the public? If this whole Oba episode had not happened, a lot of Yorubas would have voted for Agbaje and it was common knowledge that the Igbos would vote in block for Agbaje being their party man. The APC saw this and decided to play the ethnic card which worked perfectly. They know our people well and that we will shout and bring down heaven when we see the video just like we reacted during the deportation saga. Alot of Yorubas who initially wanted to vote for Agbaje ended up changing their mind to vote for Ambode because they saw it as Yoruba vs Igbo and they wanted to prove to the Igbo their dominance in Lagos. The whole drowning in Lagoon speech was a carefully written and acted script. The governorship election in Lagos turned out to be about proving who owns Lagos and this alone pitched almost all the Yorubas against Agbaje whom they saw as another Afonja.

All this was part of Tinubu's game, wake up! Don't be surprised to go to the Oba's palace and find him drinking with those Igbo Ezes.

They successfully labelled Agbaje as Okeshuku. [/s].

malailayi:
I personally will rather be a senator , GMBs ministers are going to be in for a lot of stress

huptin:


How can Larger cargo ships start coming there if you people dont use them? You want more ports yet the ones that you have are rarely used. The reason the Lagos port is being mostly used is because of the proximity to industries.

So if you want the ports in SE and SS to be viable you will have to site industries there first and then start using them.

For your information more ports are on their way in Lekki, Badagry, Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom, sorry to disappoint you none is in the east because the Onitsha river port commisioned by Shagari was never viable from day one infact it was abandoned almost immediately. GEJ promised to resuscitate but i guess he abandoned it for the more politically expedient 2nd river Niger bridge.

eyeview:
Alex Ekwueme built the PDP from the G34. Its ideals were noble.It was later infiltrated by the likes of Atiku and Obj who have now killed it after using it for their selfish gains.
Though am igbo,I will advice that towards the 2019 election,the chairmanship of the party should be zoned to the south west and given to no other person that Ayodele Fayose.
That is one man who can fight dirty enough to wrestle power out of the likes of tinubu. By 2019,his administration would have ended and thus free to assume that role.

eliment:
The north will not allow state police their fear is that it. May lead to secession

Lagos state House of Assembly hopeful and All Progressives Congress member, Desmond Olusola Elliot, was allegedly caught sharing money to woo voters in Lagos state, according to an image by a citizen reporter.

In the said image, the Nollywood star who wore a native attire with his initial DOE boldly written on his cap, was surrounded by policemen and others. It is not certain if the money was for the policemen or the voters.

However, he has denied the allegation, arguing that he did not need to bribe anyone. He didn’t give further information on why he shared the money.

“Please remain focused and prayerful, I didn’t bribe my way to where God has placed me, is it now that I will start.. and what am I bribing them for again?” he said in a tweet.

Vanguard cannot independently verify the authenticity and time of the photograph. We have also contacted him for further information on the image.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) workers at the party's national secretariat, Abuja, have gone on strike following the non-payment of their salaries which they said are for three months.

Our Correspondent gathered that the workers, who are mostly youths working as cleaners and messengers, commenced the strike on Tuesday, after all other means to get their pay failed to yield positive results.

The party's national secretariat was very dirty when our reporter visited it as the striking workers refused to perform their duties.
Some of them who came to the secretariat were seen sitting idle, wearing sad look on their faces and complaining that they had been spending their monies on transportation to the secretariat for the past three months without payment.

One of them who looked very hungry and tired told our correspondent on condition of anonymity that their major fear is that the PDP had been defeated in the March 28 presidential election and may not settle them even though they had done their job.

He said the party is paying them N14, 000 each as monthly salary, adding that even when they were being paid in the past, the salary used to come late.

"I am tired of this place. We have decided that strike is the best option for us now because they don't want to pay us. You can see how the environment is today. We are not working.

"We are collecting only N14,000 each from the party as monthly salary but they have not paid us for the past three months, and you know we are very junior staff. We don't have long legs like others and we can't carry placards or banners to protest, so we want our salaries paid," he said.

He called on the party's national chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu'azu to address the situation, describing it as sad and unfortunate.
However, calls put to the PDP national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh, to confirm the development were unsuccessful.

Omexonomy:
Awusa/fulani and their slave should stop blaming ojukwu for their stupidiy greed and failures in live.

Atlantian:
He did, and the igbos went there thinking he wants to share dollars, you know we like money, but the man started chest-beating and barking. That's why we laughed, cos the Oba is known to be a popular comedian.

Atlantian:
Who actually made that m0ron an Oba ? There are numerous intelligent Yorubas that we love and cherish, Yorubas of great character, yet that thug called Lil Wayne Akiola was made an Oba.

Its a shame.

While the Oba of Lagos, Rilwanu Akiolu, delivered apparently anti-Igbo remarks Sunday, sparking fierce nationwide backlash, Igbo leaders who were part of Mr. Akiolu’s audience, helped prod him on, joining other listeners in applauding the monarch as he spoke, audio and video recordings of the event show.

Mr. Akiolu had told a gathering which had the Eze Ndi-Igbos (Igbo traditional rulers) of all the local government areas in Lagos State that they should cast their votes for his chosen governorship candidate or “perish inside the lagoon”.

The Oba supports the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Akinwunmi Ambode.

“On Saturday, if anyone of you goes against the Ambode I picked, that is your end. If it doesn’t happen within seven days, just know that I’m a bastard and it is not my father who born me,” Mr. Akiolu told the gathering.

“The one you have done before, he’s my son. Jonathan is my son and I speak to him every day. But, this Saturday, by the grace of God almighty Allah, I am the owner of Lagos and the owner of this…for the time being.”As the Oba spoke, there were murmurs in the audience.

But Mr. Akiolu continued, determined to get his message across.
“Listen. Because this is an undivided chair. The palace belongs to the dead, the living and those coming in future.

“On Saturday, if anyone of you, I swear in the name of God almighty Allah, goes against my wish that Ambode, insha Allahu, will be the next governor of Lagos State, the person is going to die inside this water.”

The audience, including the Igbo chiefs, applauded.
The Oba went ahead.

“I’m not ready to beg, appeal to anybody o. And that’s why Asiwaju and the governor said, I said that is your own. Even the two of them they cannot disobey me. Nobody knew how I picked Ambode. Jimi (Agbaje) is my blood relation and I told him in a plain language he can never be governor in Lagos for now.


“The future belongs to God. I am not begging anybody to go, but you must not, I repeat… what you people cannot do in Onitsha, what you cannot do in Aba or anywhere…

Another round of applause erupted in the room.

“If you do what I want, Lagos will continue to be prosper for you. If you go against it, you will perish in the water. Finish.”

The audience responded with chants of “Kabiyesi o."

When it was time for the Igbo leaders to respond to the Oba, there was uproarious laughter in the room.

[b]Gordion Ojiako, the spokesperson of the Eze Ndi Igbos in Lagos, promised Mr. Akiolu that they would vote massively for the APC during Saturday’s gubernatorial election.

“Kabiyesi, we are promising you. Why we came all of us is for you to see our faces. If we say we don’t want (on) Saturday…we can’t come here,” Mr. Ojiako, the Eze Ndi Igbo in Amuwo Oriade, said.

The Igbo leader asked his colleagues, “By Saturday, all of us are going to vote whooooo?”

They chorused, “Ambode!”

“Ehen! And we tried. Even when we were trying for the national… Kabiyesi you can see this paper, this is the rally we did. This is the rally we did, commissioner can testify.

“So we are telling you that coming Saturday we are going to show you the way it used to be.

“And why we’ve come here today sir, Kabiyesi, is to come and congratulate and thank you for being our father in Lagos.

We don’t need to talk much because after Saturday, Sunday we come for party before you do handover.”

The Igbo leaders then broke into a victory song, “Winner oooo winner oooo…”

The Oba joked that Mr. Ojiako should come to Sunday’s victory party with his “young daughter”.

There was more laughter in the room.
[/b]
The monarch’s speech came under severe criticism with Nigerians lambasting him for his utterance.

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, told him to apologise to the Igbo people in Lagos “without delay”.

On Monday, when PREMIUM TIMES asked Mr. Ojiako why they were not offended by the Lagos monarch’s statement, he said it would be wrong to challenge the king inside his palace.

“We will go back and convene a meeting of Igbo stakeholders and respond to him appropriately,” Mr. Ojiako said.

Lagos State chapter of Ohanaeze Ndigbo has called on Oba Akiolu of Lagos to “tender a widely-publicized apology to our people,” saying Igbo have the right to choose whoever they desire in a free and fair election.

The call was in reaction to the alleged threat issued by the Lagos monarch to anyone that does not vote for his preferred candidate in the forthcoming governorship election in the state.

In a statement by Mr. Chibuzo Azubuike, State Secretary, Ohanaeze said: “Our peoples’ right to freedom of choice, movement, personal liberty, ownership of property is guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution and is not given by the whims or caprice of any individual or group.”