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NDDC to host stakeholders summit, identifies priority areas for 2024
The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Dr Samuel Ogbuku, has revealed that the commission will host a stakeholders summit this year.
Speaking during an interactive session with NDDC management and staff at the Commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt, Ogbuku stated that engagements with various stakeholders will take the spotlight this year.
He said that such engagements would help the Commission implement projects that would ensure sustainable development of the Niger Delta region and address the aspirations and needs of the people of the region.
The Managing Director stated that the NDDC would host a stakeholders’ summit in March to provide a platform for new ideas and strategies to fast-track development in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
According to Ogbuku, “The summit will not just be a forum for a few individuals, but will involve major stakeholders, including members of the National Assembly, Ministers from the region, traditional rulers and the private sector to discuss the Niger Delta”
The NDDC boss also noted that rather than working at cross purposes, the summit would help the Commission to harmonise its activities in the Niger Delta region. He noted that priority would be given to capital projects with less emphasis on recurrent expenditure.
Ogbuku urged the management and staff of the NDDC to brace up to tackle the challenges of driving the process of development in Nigeria’s oil-rich region.
Ogbuku commended the efforts of the staff in the past year, while charging them to prepare to do more as a lot was expected from the Commission. “The President has high expectations of us, especially to change the narrative of the NDDC and the Niger Delta region,” he said.
In his remarks, the NDDC Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Alabo Boma Iyaye, said that the story of the NDDC had changed for the better, stating, “We now know that most of the things we were hearing about NDDC are not correct. The staff of NDDC are hardworking and they are giving their all to the development of the region.”
Speaking in the same vein, the Executive Director Project, Sir Victor Antai, thanked the staff for their cooperation and diligence in the discharge of their duties.
Reacting on behalf of the staff, the Chairman of NDDC Staff Union, Comrade Anthony Gbendo, thanked the Executive Management for treating staff welfare with dispatch. He also canvassed attention of management to capacity building for staff through training to prepare them for the challenges of developing the Niger Delta region.
News
Stop using repressive laws to intimidate journalists – SERAP, NGE tell FG
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, and Nigeria Guild of Editors, NGE, have called on Nigerian authorities at all levels of government to stop using repressive and anti-media laws to target, intimidate and harass journalists, critics and media houses.
The groups made the demand after an interactive session on ‘the state of press freedom in Nigeria’ held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Ikeja.
In a joint statement, SERAP and NGE said that, “the government of President Bola Tinubu, the country’s 36 governors and FCT minister must now genuinely uphold press freedom, ensure access to information to all Nigerians, obey court judgments, and respect the rule of law”.
They expressed concerns about the escalating crackdown on the right to freedom of expression and media freedom and the flagrant disregard for the rule of law by authorities at all levels of government.
The groups note that the suppression of the press in recent times takes various forms ranging from extrajudicial to unlawful detentions, disappearances, malicious prosecutions and wrongful use of both legislation and law enforcement.
The statement read in part: “We would continue to speak truth to power and to hold authorities to account for their constitutional and international obligations including on freedom of expression and media freedom.
“Nigeria as a country has a long and unpleasant history of press gagging and clampdown on media freedom, which is evidence of extensive state censorship of media and in some cases, the utter control of state-owned media houses.
“This position has not changed considerably despite almost 25 years of unbroken democratic rule in the Fourth Republic.”
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FG adds 625MW to national grid – Minister
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Tax: Court orders FCT-IRS agency to seal off defaulting coys
A Magistrate Court sitting in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, on Friday, ordered the Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) to seal off a company, Ifedi A.K. Nigeria Ltd, over allegations bordering on non-filing of annual returns.
The Magistrate, Janada Balami, gave the order after lawyer to FCT-IRS, Michael Towolawi, moved the application to the effect.
Towolawi told the court that the company had failed to file its annual returns from 2019 to 2023 in breach of Section 81 of the Personal Income Tax Act, LFN, 2004, and amended in 2011.
He said all efforts to make the company comply with the law proved abortive.
The lawyer, therefore, applied that the company be compel to appear before the court to explain why it acted in breach of the law.
Balami, who held that the application by the agency against the company had merit, accordingly granted same to seal the No 6, Rudolph Close, Off Katsina-Ala Street, Maitama, Abuja.
She, consequently, ordered the company, the sole defendant in the matter, to appear before the court on May 16.
The Director, Legal Services of the FCT-IRS, Festus Tsavar, told journalists after the proceeding that the service would move against companies that do not file their annual returns as provided by law.
“You know that we have a new minister in FCT that is doing a lot of projects and that hinges on money.
“And of course, you are aware that FCT has come out of TSA.
“So it is the internally generated revenue that will make the government of FCT to be able to do those projects completely within required time,” he said.
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