How FG Withdrew From Our father's Burial - Keshi’s Children Lament

The children of the late former Super Eagles Coach, Stephen Keshi, have lamented the inability of the Federal Government to keep to its promises of giving their father a befitting burial.

Keshi (Jnr), who spoke on behalf of his siblings at the indoor Sports Hall of the Stephen Keshi International Stadium, Asaba, said it is disheartening that the federal government pulled out of the burial at the last minute.

They, however, commended Edo and Delta States for coming to their rescue.

Keshi’s body is currently lying in state at the palace of the Obi of Illah, before the interment.

Ehwooo!!! See How Much FG, States And LGs Shared For May Allocation

The three tiers of government heaved a sigh of relief as they shared N305.128 billion at the end of the May Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja as against N281.5 billion shared in previous month.

The slight improvement in revenue was as a result increased accruals into the Federation Account from non-oil and mineral revenue sources in the month of May.

Minister of finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun told journalists at the end of the meeting that, statutory allocation and Value Added Tax (VAT) also recorded slight improvements during the month under review.

According to the finance minister, the sum of N237.466 billion was available for statutory allocation compared to N213.817 billion realised last month, while Value Added Tax( VAT) improved slightly to N62.649 billion compared to N62.511 billion shared last month.

Mrs. Kemi Adeosun announced that a gross statutory revenue of N237.566 billion was received for the month which was higher than the N213.817 billion received in the previous month by N23.649 billion.

According her, “Companies Income Tax ( CIT) recorded a marginal increase even as the time for companies to file their returns is yet to fall due.”

Of the net statutory allocation of N230.9 billion approved for sharing, the federal government got N122.830 billion, states got N57.229 billlion; Local governemnt councils got N44.121 billion while oil producing states got. N16.738 billion representing their share of 13% derivation.

The balance in Excess crude account remained unchanged at $2.261 billion.

Meanwhile, the protesting staff of finance ministry have given minister seven day ultimatum to meet their demand for improved welfare or face another protest.

A source privy to the meeting between the minister and aggrieved staff told journalists that, “the staff gave the notice at a brief meeting convened yesterday morning by the minister.

The Minister having listened to our complaints told the staff that, there was no money to implement their demand and she urged them to be patient for the economy to improve, but we would have none of her excuse.”

The protesting ministry staff then told the minister that they would resume their protest after seven days”, she said and sought for identity protection.

The minister arrived at the ministry at 8am but was asked to come down from her official vehicle and walk into the building to address the workers.

Initially scared that she might be attacked, the finance minister was assured by the workers that no harm will come to her that they only wanted to hold discussions with her.

Thereafter she was led to the ministry auditorium where she told the staff that there was no money to meet their demands. However, the workers intimated her that there is “a below the line option” that the ministry can explore to pay them their Special Overtime Allowances.

The ministry had earlier described the demands of the workers as illegal and unjustified.

You Have 48 Hours Ultimatum To Release Corpses Of ‘Dead’ Pro-Biafra Agitators - Militants to FG

A resurgent militant group in the Niger Delta has on Wednesday declared war on security agents, even as it gave the President Muhammadu Buhari led government till Friday, June 3, 2016 to release the corpses of 10 pro-Biafra agitators killed in southeast Nigeria.

On Monday, about 10 supporters of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) were killed during a clash with security agencies in Onitsha, Anambra State.

Declaring the 48-hour ultimatum via a statement issued on social media on Wednesday, the militants said failure to comply would lead to more uprising, just as they said the killing of the agitators was an “unprovoked massacre of peace-loving Biafra people.”

“The Nigerian government killed many innocent people. So many of the Niger Delta militants witnessed what happened in Onitsha. We are too pained to keep quiet.”
“If Federal Government fails to release them (corpses) by Friday, June 3, 2016, they will hear from us from Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Edo States,” the militants said.

The militants, under the leaderships of Precious Iyoyo (General Playboy) and General Ben of the Niger Delta Peoples Democratic Front (NDPDF) and the Concerned Militant Leaders (CML), respectively, said the decision was taken after an emergency meeting of leaders of the various militant groups in the region.

General Ben said what the Federal Government did by the activities of soldiers and policemen, last Monday, was a clear declaration of war on innocent and helpless Nigerians.

“It is now war between the militants and security men. Since innocent and helpless citizens, especially from the South-South and the South-East, have been marked out for extinction, we will defend our people.
“We will go after security men in an unprecedented manner, both on sea and land. The Federal Government should expect more attacks from us. We will tell the Federal Government that the Niger Delta region is our terrain and no amount of military troops and their armoury will dampen our spirit.”

We’ve jammed Radio Biafra transmission signals' - FG

According to a report by Vanguard, FG confirmed yesterday that they have succeeded in jamming the transmission signals of Radio Biafra, which they say have been operating illegally from an unknown location. Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Information, Yemi Folasade-Esan, told State House correspondents "Right now, the signals from Radio Biafra have been jammed.
The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has successfully jammed that. The NBC is also working with security operatives to get those behind that radio because it is an illegal radio. It is not licensed by anybody to be on Nigeria’s airwaves."