₦airaland Forum

Source: https://thewhistler.ng/story/firs-boss-fowler-in-n7bn-tax-refund-fraud-hires-250-secretly

photo: B Fowler the face of a tax thief

Hehehe! Oti bere. Tinubu will milk lagos and still milk Nigeria too. Who says the jagaban, rotten teeth and all, is not powerful?

In what could be described as one of the grand heists in President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime, the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Babatunde Fowler, has been fingered in a N7billion tax refund scam.

Also, aggrieved management staff of the FIRS are accusing him of unilateral employment of 250 new staff without following civil service rule for such employment, while he has embarked on a witch hunt against those perceived to be in opposition to him.

Documents obtained by The Whistler showed that Fowler, a known ally of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, All Progressives Congress (APC) national leader, refunded N7billion to construction firm, Julius Berger, being excess tax allegedly paid by the company between 2012 and 2015.

However, the issue of the excess tax refund had been reviewed by the FIRS last year before Fowler’s controversial appointment was denied by management which insisted that Julius Berger was not entitled to any refund rather had underpaid its tax.

The review of the construction company’s tax returns was carried out by Mr. Innocent Ohagwa, who was then a director in the Lagos Tax Office of the FIRS.

An insider, who spoke in confidence with The Whistler, said the belief is that the chairman would have pocketed over N700 million being 10 percent of the tax refund to Julius Berger.

“The chairman is less than one year in office and you can see what he has done. How can you singlehandedly refund N7billion to a company when there is a review on ground that says Julius Berger is not entitled to any refund?

“This is coming on the heels of dwindling resources, at a time the government is trying to shore up revenue collection but without consultation the chairman just refunded such huge sum to a single company.

“The president needs to order a forensic investigation into this matter, except we are meant to believe that this is part of the FG’s settlement to somebody,” the source said.

In a related development, Fowler has come under fire for recruiting 250 new staff through the backdoor.

In some letters sighted by The Whistler, the new staff were employed in February, majorly at the directorate level, with some as Special Advisers, and consultants being mainly people that worked with Fowler when he headed the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue Service.

To pave way for those he engaged through the backdoor, he has redeployed over 62 senior management staff to non-functional training school in the six geo-political zones of the country.

For instance, Mr. Andrew Ayabam, Salihu Baba Alkali, Bimpe Badmus, Jimoh I.T.T and Sola Akingbade, all newly appointed are domiciled in the headquarters with sensitive positions, while long standing directors and deputy directors were posted to the training schools and as acting state coordinators.

One of those posted to the North West had complained that the offices are poorly furnished with no running imprests given that most jobs are now being handled by consultants.

It would be recalled that Fowler was appointed by President Buhari on August 20, 2015 and assumed duty though he was confirmed by the Senate in December of the same year.

Sunnybobo3:
Is that dog food?














Just asking.

Sure looks like it.

automaticcars:
Why don't you give us link to the picture, you liar?

Once again, nice photoshop.

Are you willing to apologize to me and call yourself the liar if I provide a link?

RightBoo:
Is dirty because Nigeria is dirty.
Is Dirty because Nigeria is just like a zoo.
Is dirty because Nigeria still holds on to it like parasites.
Is dirty because Nigeria is just over grown babies that are overhyped.

Well, I could agree with you.

automaticcars:
Lie!!

You can't separate yeebos and lies mehn.

Op, I dare you to give us link where you got this picture. I dare you 100 time, you liar.

Nice photoshop though.

Photoshop ke? Are you kidding me?

RightBoo:
Op that's tip of the iceberg of what biaf can become.

Not so fast. Biafra of today is also dirty

Photo of Biafra, 1967. http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/images/stories/com_form2content/p4/f6487/gallery94/p01yd799.jpg

Nigeria of today (including its former Biafra part) is so dirty. Where did you guys get it wrong?

Notice speed signs, street lights etc. This is during war time oh!

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/12/root-causes-of-the-biafra-struggle/

Root causes of the Biafra struggle

on December 01, 2015 / in Femi Aribisala 1:40 am / Comments

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By Femi Aribisala
IN the eight years of Obasanjo’s presidency, there was no headline-grabbing demand for Biafra. Ditto for the eight years of the Yar’Adua/Jonathan presidency. However, within months of Buhari’s presidency, the Igbo demand for Biafra has become deafening.

Without a doubt, the blame for this new impetus must be laid firmly at the doorstep of President Buhari. Moreover, rather than attenuate it, the president and the APC have exacerbated separatist tendencies in the country.

This was part of the reason why people like me did not support Buhari’s election as president of Nigeria. I have written severally in Vanguard that Nigeria must remain a united nation. In my column of 4th March, 2014 entitled: “Re-inventing Igbo Politics in Nigeria,” I maintained that: “Nigeria cannot survive without the Igbo.” The following week on 11th March 2014, I wrote another article entitled: “Nigeria Cannot Do without the North.”

I remain persuaded by both positions. But if Nigeria is indeed to remain united, there are certain things that must be said and done. The problem with the Buhari administration is that it seems totally impervious to these imperatives.

Second-class treatment

There is no question that, as one of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Igbo have been hard done by. Since the civil war 45 years ago, they have been treated as if they were a minority ethnic group in Nigeria when in fact they are one of the majorities. No Igbo has been considered worthy of being head-of-state. The South East of Ndigbo is the only one of the six geopolitical zones of the country with five states. All other zones have six or more. Indeed, the number of local governments in the North-East is virtually double that of the South-East. As a result, the Ndigbo receive the smallest amount of revenue allocation among all the zones, in spite of the fact that some of the South-eastern states are among the oil-producing states.

The roads in the South-east are notoriously bad. Government after government have simply ignored them. Inconsequential ministerial positions are usually zoned to Ndigbo. Time was when it seemed the lackluster Ministry of Information was their menial preserve. It is also a known fact that every so often the Igbo are slaughtered in the North under one guise or the other. Many are forced to abandon their homes and businesses and run for dear life. The people who perpetrate these acts never seem to be arrested or prosecuted.

When a major tribe is treated procedurally as second-class in their own country, there will be a demand for self-determination sooner rather than later. When a group of people feel unsafe in their own country, they cannot but be expected to decide to opt out. It is not the responsibility of the government to imprison the Igbo in Nigeria. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure and guarantee that they feel safe and are treated with respect.

Discrimination against the South: While these issues have been brewing under the surface for some time, the lop-sided tendencies of President Buhari have brought them all out to boiling-point. In his first-coming as head-of-state in 1984, Buhari antagonised Ndigbo by locking up Vice-President Alex Ekwueme, an Igbo man, in jail in Kirikiri; while President Shehu Shagari, a Fulani man was only placed under house arrest. In addition, Buhari arrested and jailed Ojukwu, another Igbo icon for no just cause.

As Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund, Buhari discriminated blatantly against the South and especially the South-east. For example, his PTF built only 4,440 kilometres of roads in Southern Nigeria representing a paltry 24%; while 13,870 kilometres were built in the North representing 76%. Of these figures, the Southeast and South-south combined only received 13.5%.

Under the PTF’s National Health and Rehabilitation Programme, NHERP, the entire South got 0% allocation, while the North got 100% in the tertiary programme. In the vocational programme, the entire South had only 3% while the North had 97%. The same was for the primary side where the South had only 12% but the North was allocated 88%. The secondary area was no different. While the North had 86% percent, the South had just 14%.

Disenfranchisement of Ndigbo

These anomalies have been duplicated to date in the seven months of Buhari’s presidency. In the first place, Buhari won virtually without Igbo votes. In order to diminish Jonathan’s votes, a major assault was made against them; recognising that they are some of the staunchest Jonathan supporters. INEC ensured that, far more disproportionately relative to other geopolitical zones, millions of South-East voters disappeared between 2011 and 2015.

Only 7.6 million voters were registered for the 2015 election in the South-east, and only 5.6 million PVCs collected. Compare this with Buhari’s North-west, there were 17.6 million registrations and 15.1 million collections. While in the South-west, there were 4.2 million votes in 2015, relative to 4.6 million in 2011: in the South-east, there were only 2.6 million votes in 2015, relative to 5 million in 2011; a drastic drop of 2.4 million.

While Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa and Bauchi posted their traditional humongous figures; Imo, Anambra and Abia posted relatively disappointing figures. While the internally displaced Northerners in the North-East could vote; internally displaced Igbos from the North could not. While the card-readers failed in many parts of the South-east, suggestive they were programmed to fail; they worked in most parts of the North. In places like Lagos and Kano, many non-indigenes, including the Igbo, were not even given their PVCs.

Making of a hero: President Buhari then added insult to injury by stating on his visit to the United States that he could not be expected to treat those who voted for him in the same way as those who did not.

He said: “(Going by election results), constituencies that gave me 97% cannot in all honesty be treated, on some issues, with constituencies that gave me 5%. I think these are political realities. While, certainly there will be justice for everybody but the people who voted, and made their votes count, they must feel the government has appreciated the effort they put in putting the government in place.”

While his media assistants later tried to water down this disturbing statement, the reality was that, apart from the constitutionally-stipulated requirement that every state must be represented in the presidential Cabinet, Buhari has virtually ignored the Igbo in his appointments.

Two moves showed the level of insensitivity of the Buhari administration to these anomalies. The first was the decision to move Boko Haram prisoners down from the North to the South-east; a move firmly resisted by the Igbo as it would have made them a target of suicide-bombers. The other was the blunder of placing Nnamdi Kanu, the director of Radio Biafra, under arrest; charging him with treason and terrorism.

All the government has achieved by this is inflame passions in the South-east. It has also made a hero out of Kanu. Those who did not know about Kanu before now know him. Those who were not disposed to Biafra before are now shouting Biafra. For weeks on end, Biafra has become the biggest news item nationwide, with agitations, demonstrations, threats and arrests.

Agenda for action: The government needs to apply more wisdom here. At the moment, it has become the biggest promoter of Biafra by the way it has gone about things. The idea of Biafra cannot be killed with a sledge hammer, if at all. What is required is to address the root causes that impelled Biafra. Unfortunately, it would appear the Buhari administration is unwilling to do this.

As a matter of urgency, Nnamdi Kanu must be released unconditionally. If the government persists in labeling him a terrorist, his supporters might decide to become terrorists. Nigeria already has enough problem of Boko Haram conflagration in the North-east. We cannot afford to light another fire in the South-east.

Kanu was living in England. If he were a terrorist, he would have been arrested there. The fact that he lived there without constraints or restraints shows he was not considered a threat, either to Britain or to Nigeria.

It is not a crime to fight for self-determination; it is a right. The government must not give the impression that Nigeria is a prison where we must all live, irrespective of the living conditions. The government needs to address the grievances of the Igbo. Their roads and bridges must be built. Their waterways must be opened up to the Atlantic Ocean.

Eastern sea-ports must be developed. Railways must link their mercantile cities to the North. Their coal resources must be profitably exploited for the benefit of their unemployed youth and citizenry. An additional state must be created in the South-east to bring it up to par with other geopolitical zones.

National question

Moreover, we need to revisit again a critical issue addressed during the truncated National Conference: the issue of resource allocation. This is a major gripe of the Igbo and it is a legitimate gripe. It is not in the interest of Nigeria to continue in this age-old practice where all the states gather every month in Abuja for handouts, whether they are productive or not. This gives the wrong impression that some states are insisting on being piggy-backed by others. We need to develop a system that rewards and encourages productivity.

Those who produce should be allowed to keep disproportionately what they produce, instead of the current situation where they are required to share it disproportionately with those relatively less productive. The truth of the matter is that every part of Nigeria is resource rich. Every part of Nigeria has the requisite manpower. Unfortunately, our current over-concentration on oil militates against the development of other indigenous resources.

A situation where national resources are distributed according to the number of local government councils, and where there is now supposedly only 96 local government councils in the South-East, relative to 186 in the North-west does not suggest equity and justice.

The disgruntlement in the South-east about the Nigeria project will not disappear by ignoring it. It will not disappear by arresting Kanu. It will not disappear by issuing threats. Neither will it disappear by denying the youth of the South-east their freedom of speech and assembly.

Today, the demand for Biafra remains the demand of a minority of the Igbo. If the root causes of their anger are not addressed, the minority will soon become the majority. If that happens, Nigeria might unravel. I repeat what I have stated before: the Nigeria of our manifest destiny cannot be realised without the Igbo.

See the dressing of a man who has been collecting dressing allowance from tax payers and from Niger Delta oil money. Should we ask him to refund the monies?

Senator Ibn Na’Allah, an APC SINator representing Kebbi South Senatorial Zone who is championing the online media ban

Another one


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oVkcLFMkQw

Ibibio Sound Machine


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZukgc-eR1k



http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/0ece139d-19a4-44c6-85e6-0406e8055a21

SLIDEwaxie:
so, when ojukwu carried gun and started shooting, gowon shld start dodging abi?

You need to educate yourself on who shot first during the Biafra war.

This is breaking news. Gowon's son with an Igbo woman has been in US prison for 22 years. He was released earlier this week upon an amnesty event by POTUS. He will be deported to Nigeria soon.

So while Gowon was busy killing Igbo men, he was also busy fckukking an Igbo lady, presumably of Anambra origin, the same State that his most hated enemy back then (Ojukwu) came from. It must be a big conquest for him: kill their men, Bleep their women.

What an irony.

Could that explain Gowon's recent trip to Anambra? I understand the son's Igbo relations in the USA fought for, and took care of him during his ordeal.

It would be interesting to see what the man does upon return to Nigeria. I'm sure a job at NOTORE INDUSTRIES, Onne, Rivers State awaits him. After all, dad is the Chair of NOTORE'S BODs.

Will he work to unite his two families?

Mekus68:
Bros abeg which century are u living in...13th, 14th or 15th century? Choose one

Do you mind expatiating on the question? Why did you ask that?

Personally, I have no articulated opinion about Biafra at the moment. I am neither for nor against it. However, I wish the agitators will tell me how they hope to achieve it in Nigeria in a peaceful manner that will be devoid human and material casualties

There are many questions such as

1. What is on the ground to absorb millions of returnees, especially those with no material or logistic roots in Igboland?
2. What happens to the investment of Igbos in non-Igbo States?
3. What happens to Igbos as they physically transit from non-Igbo to Igbo States? They are likely to be attacked and killed enroute
4. Do Igbo states govts have monetary reserves to be deployed in attending to state matters until the new country find its feet?
5. What happens to Biafra if Nigeria launches an attack to try to regain the territory, like they did in 1967? Are we armed and ready to fight and defend ourselves? If not, how soon can we be armed?

Breaking away from an African country is not the same as Breaking away from a European country. It is not going to be easy and likely not peaceful.

So the Biafran agitators need to know this and better start having answers to these and more questions.

1. Nnamdi Kalu should be released immediately
2. He should be asked to state in public upon release if he is a Nigerian (as of today) or not
3. If he declares that he is not Nigerian, then he should be banned from stepping his feet into Nigerian (non-SE) territories
4. A non-binding referendum should be conducted just to test the waters on the strength of numbers of those who want Biafra among the Igbos
5. If the referendum favors Biafra, then Nigeria should sit down and start discussing with ''Biafra'' (who ever that is)
6. If the referendum is in favor of one-Nigeria, then Biafra should be ''killed'' immediately, and its future agitators thrown into the Lagoon forever.
8. Once and for all, indigenous Igbos in non-SE states (Rivers and Delta) and those in diaspora (outside of the SE States) would have the opportunity to indicate their preference by being involved in the referendum.

There are 40+ million Igbos globally, we need to know those who want Biafra and those who do not.

These steps can be achieved in 365 days

A referendum needs money to conduct it. Those who want Biafra should be asked to provide part of the funds needed for the referendum.
The remaining part of the funds should be produced by the Federal and Igbo state govts. Rivers and Delta, because they are not ''Igbo-only'' States are not obligated to provide funds for the referendum.

egokudiowomoney:
it is truth because Allison Madueke and Stella Odua's money are very clean...ndi ara

Duh! Allison is from Ijaw. Oloshi

ROSSIKE:
One more thing. ALL CAR MANUFACTURING IS CAR ASSEMBLY. THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE. CAR PLANTS ALL DO THE SAME THING - ASSEMBLE VEHICLES USING COMPONENTS OBTAINED FROM COMPONENT MANUFACTURERS.

It is only in Nigeria that people make a distinction between 'assembly' and 'manufacturing' of vehicles, due to semi-literacy, inferiority complex, and lack of exposure. IF YOU MAKE THAT DISTINCTION OUTSIDE THESE SHORES, YOU'LL BE THROWN IN A MADHOUSE.

Correct. Rosike is one of the most intelligent and objective Nairalanders

abacusbabababa1:
If you have just one of them in your family member, your own don better.in summary,one of them can feed your entire family till Biafra Republic agitation is achieved in 2215

I am rich enough to feed Osun state. Besides, my money is genuine but the only genuine rich Yoruba is the unborn one. The rest are thieves, ole buruku.

OkijaAmakka:
we need to be honest about our state.

There is no single rail line in Anambra State. That nullifies all you photos. LIAR

One more Mr. handsome from Y-region

slimfit1:
Non of them have an ugly account!

Dude, life is not all about money.
Besides, some others from I-region are handsome and still have fat accounts

BuddahMonk:
You may think am lying but this is the pure fact, Igbos deal on drug but an average Igbo guy have not seen cocaine before.

Igbos drink alcohol a lot infact we live inside bottles so the need for drug is no longer there, we have the highest concentration of booze factory in Africa but who rarely see in Igbo street a junkie, a fiend but you can see drug couriers but no drug users.

In reality Igbo drug dealers are mainly small-time foot soldiers, ill-trained in the art of drug trafficking. The real drug barons who make millions from ORGANIZED drug couriering are Yorubas and Edo peeps. They are smarter than the Igbos who carry drugs because those Igbos are mainly semi illiterate traders who cannot differentiate between carrying drugs to China and other Asian countries (= death sentence) and doing so to UK, US and other benign countries (= just jail time).

Per consumption, you are right. Most Igbos have not seen ''Igbo'' (marijuana) in their entire life, let alone cocaine. In contrast, every farmer in Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and Edo have ''Igbo'' farms.

Manager123:
This must be a Gorilla in human clothing

No be small thing oh! There should be a different country (called O-COUNTRY) for these kinds of people

lekkie073:
ok....u made no sense

The more you look, the less you see. You need to wear a special goggle to see me