Federal Government deducted N35.51bn from allocation made to states for external debt servicing, contractual obligations and others. The deductions, which were for September, were made from the allocations given to state governments from the Federation Account. The federation account is currently being managed on a legal framework that allows funds to be shared under three major components – statutory allocation, Value Added Tax distribution and derivation principle. Under statutory allocation, the Federal Government gets 52.68 per cent of the revenue shared; states, 26.72 per cent; and local governments 20.60 per cent. The framework also provides that Value Added Tax revenue…

Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) has secured two separate court judgements from English courts against Nigeria, a development that seems to plunge the Federal Government deeper into the issue it was trying to wriggle out of. But government said yesterday that the engineering and project management company led by Michael Quinn and the court accepted its bank guarantee of $200 million as security, in compliance with a court order. On the court rulings, the firm stated: “These two developments are major milestones for P&ID, as it attempts to compel Nigeria to comply with its lawful obligations. “Court of Appeal…

President Donald Trump paid a surprise Thanksgiving visit to Afghanistan, where he announced the U.S. and Taliban have been engaged in ongoing peace talks and said he believes the Taliban want a cease-fire. In his first trip to the site of America’s longest war, Trump arrived at Bagram Air Field shortly after 8:30 p.m. local time Thursday and spent 3½ hours on the ground, serving turkey, thanking the troops and sitting down with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani before leaving just after midnight. As per tradition, reporters were under strict instructions to keep the trip a secret to ensure the president’s…

Scores of protesters made up of civil society groups and students besieged National Assembly complex on Wednesday and asked federal lawmakers to drop the anti-social media and hate speech bills which were at various stages in the nation’s parliament. The protesters armed with placards having various inscriptions such as ‘What are we saying?, Say no to social media bill,’ ‘What are we demanding? Say no to hate speech bill.’ There was a heavy security build up between 8am and about 12noon when the protesters ended the protest. One of the leaders of the civil society group, Mr Henry Shield, told…