Russia launched referendums on Friday aimed at annexing four occupied regions of Ukraine, drawing condemnation from Kyiv and Western nations who dismissed the votes as a sham and pledged not to recognise their results. Ukrainian officials said people were banned from leaving some occupied areas until the four-day vote was over, armed groups were going into homes, and employees were threatened with the sack if they did not participate. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a nightly address that the votes would be "unequivocally condemned" by the world, along with the mobilisation Russia began this week, including in Crimea and…

Airports in Nigeria had 15.8 million passengers passing through them in 2021, a 69 per cent rise in air passenger rate, according to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). Managing Director of FAAN, Rabiu Yadudu who spoke at the 2022 Airline and Airport Business Summit, said the growth of air transport statistics has improved rapidly after the Covid-19 pandemic, disclosing that the passenger figure rose from 9.3 million in 2020 to 15.8m in 2021, showing an increase of 69% while aircraft movement increased by over 46% after the Covid-19. On cargo movement, Yadudu said 191,000 tons of cargo were…

Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has asked Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government (MDAs) to stop appointing consultants and concessionaires as tax collectors. According to the organization, the practice was illegal, saying that FIRS remained the sole agency of government saddled with the responsibility of tax collection. In a Public Notice it issued by Executive Chairman, Muhammad Nami, FIRS accused some MDAs of including functions of assessment, collection, accounting and enforcement of taxes and levies in their agreements with concessionaires and consultants. “It has come to the notice of the Federal Inland Revenue Service that some Ministries, Departments and Agencies…

PRESS RELEASE The video making the rounds showing the equivalent of the Western Nigeria Security Network (Amotekun Corps) in Katsina, obtaining the approval of the Federal Government to bear arms is fraught with great dangers. Denying Amotekun the urgently needed rights, to legitimately bear arms is a repudiation of the basis of true federalism which we have been clamoring for. That Katsina was able to arm its state security force, with the display of AK47 means we are pursuing “one country, two systems" solution to the national question. If the katsina situation conferring advantages on some, in the face of…