News

Alleged tax scam: FG to arraign Binance, two others on April 4

Published

11 months ago

March 28, 2024

The Federal Government will on April 4 arraign Binance Holdings Limited and its two top officials: Tigran Gambaryan and fleeing Nadeem Anjarwalla, on allegations bordering on tax evasion.

Binance, Gambaryan, and Anjarwalla, listed as 1st to 3rd defendants respectively, are expected to be arraigned before Justice Emeka Nwite of a Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja on a four-count charge.

Anjarwalla, who had been in detention alongside Gambaryan, was said to have escaped from lawful custody. He escaped on Friday from the Abuja guest house where he and his colleague were detained.

Though the Federal High Court Easter vacation began on March 22 and will come to an end on April 8, the Chief Judge, Justice John Tsoho, directed the transfer of the Binance case file to Justice Nwite.
Although Justice Nwite is not a vacation judge, the chief judge granted the fiat for the judge to handle the case during vacation being a matter that concerns dire national interest.

Hearing notices had been related to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the prosecuting agency, and counsel to other parties for the defendants to take their plea.

The charges levelled against Binance include allegations of non-payment of Value-Added Tax (VAT), Company Income Tax, failure to file tax returns, and complicity in aiding customers to evade taxes through its platform.

Furthermore, the Federal Government accused Binance of neglecting to register with FIRS for tax purposes and contravening existing tax regulations within the country.

One of the counts in the lawsuit pertains to Binance’s purported failure to collect and remit various categories of taxes to the federation as stipulated by Section 40 of the FIRS Establishment Act 2007 as amended.

This section explicitly addresses the non-deduction and non-remittance of taxes, prescribing penalties, and potential imprisonment for defaulting entities.

News

PSC endorses appointment of six DIGs, elevates one CP to AIG, others

Published

26 minutes ago

March 4, 2025

Naijablitznews

The Police Service Commission has endorsed the appointment of six Deputy Inspectors General of Police and the promotion of the Commissioner of Police Enugu State Command, Uzuegbu Kanayo to the next rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police.

The new Deputy Inspectors General of Police are Sadiq Idiris Abubakar, Commandant Police Academy , Wudil, Kano. He was former Commissioner of Police, Federal Capital Territory; CP Peace keeping Operations and Coordinator, Police Special Forces; Benjamin Nebolisa Okolo, former AIG, Zone 16, Yenagoa and presently AIG Department of Information Communication Technology, Force Headquarters Abuja and Williams Adebowale, Commandant, Police Staff College Jos.

Others are Bzigu Yakubu Kwazi Bali, AIG FCID, Annex Enugu; Idegwu Basil Ukuoma, AIG Zone 14, Katsina and Adebola Ayinde Hamzat, AIG Zone 16 Yenagoa and former Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Command. He was also a former CP Border Patrol, Force Headquarters, CP Crime Prevention and Community safety; Deputy Force Secretary and currently AIG in charge of NPF Counter Terrorism Unit, CTU, Force Headquarters Abuja.

CP Kanayo Uzuegbu Commissioner of Police Enugu State Command promoted to the next rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police was a former Assistant Commissioner Operations Zone 9, Umuahia; Area Commander, Owerri; Area Commander Karu, Nasarawa state; Commander Switch Operation Switch, Portharcourt; Deputy Commissioner Finance and Admin Edo State Command, DCP, state CID, Osun State and Commissioner of Police Operations, Communication, Force Headquarters, Abuja.

The Commission also approved the appointment of Commissioners of Police for Oyo and Enugu State Commands. CP Ademola Johnson, Principal Staff Officer to the Inspector General of Police was appointed CP Oyo State. He was also a former Deputy Commissioner of Police Delta State Command. CP Mamman Bitrus Giwa was appointed CP, Enugu State to take over from newly promoted AIG Kanayo Uzuegbu. CP Giwa was former DCP Operations Kaduna and Imo State Commands; ACP Police Mobile Force, Force Headquarters Abuja; and CSP A, Commissioner of Police Mobile Force, Force Headquarters among other postings in the Police Mobile Force.

The Commission also approved the promotion of eight Chief Superintendents of Police to the next rank of Assistant Commissioners of Police. They are Abdullahi Kamba Usman; Sani Abdu; Ifeanyi Owo; Vincent Orole; Elisha Atikinkpan and Margaret Okonkwo. Others are Alhasan Aliyu Guga and Imo Owinizi Ezekiel.

The newly promoted senior Police Officers were subjected to Written examinations and interactive oral interview.

The Chairman of the Commission, DIG Hashimu Argungu rtd mni, presided over the sessions with Justice Paul Adamu Galumje, Justice of the Supreme Court rtd and Honourable Commissioner representing the Judiciary in the Commission; DIG Taiwo Lakanu rtd fdc, Honourable Commissioner representing the Police and Chief Onyemuchi Nnamani, Secretary to the Commission in attendance.

News

Alleged Breach Of Act: FCCPC Set To Arraign MTN CEO, Others

Published

32 minutes ago

March 4, 2025

Naijablitznews

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) will on May 28, arraign Mr Karl Toriola, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of MTN Nigeria Communications Plc.

Toriola, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc and others will be arraigned over alleged failure to produce documents and information required by the commission in compliance with a lawful summons contrary to the FCCPC Act.

The company and its CEO will be arraigned alongside Tobechukwu Okigbo, MTN’s Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer and Ikenna Ikeme, General Manager, Regulatory Affairs of MTN, before Justice H.J. Yilwa of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that FCCPC had, in the charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/354/2024, named MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, Toriola, Okigbo and Ikeme as 1st to 4th suspects respectively.
The suspects were preferred with two counts in the charge, dated July 19, 2024, and filed July 22, 2024 by a team of lawyers led by Akoji Achimugu.

When the matter was called, they were not in court.

Justice Yilwa asked the FCCP lawyer, Chizenum Nsitem, the whereabouts of the suspects.
Nsitem informed the court that though the matter was scheduled for the arraignment of the suspects, he was just briefed about the case and would need more time to study the case file.

The judge adjourned the matter until May 28 for arraignment.

NAN reports that the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) had earlier filed charge against MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd; its CEO, Toriola; MTN Senior Executive Officer, Nkeakam Abhulimen; Fun Mobile Ltd, a telecommunications service provider; and Yahaya Maibe, its CEO.

The NCC, in the three-count charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/111/2024 presently before Justice Inyang Ekwo of a sister court, filed it on March 20, 2024.

The prosecution alleged that the defendants, between 2010 and 2017, “offered for sale, sold and traded for business, infringed musical works of Maleke Moye, an artiste, without his consent and authorisation.”

The commission alleged that the defendants used Maleke’s musical works and sound recordings with subsisting copyright, known as “caller ring back tunes” without the authorisation of the artiste.

The musical works and sound recordings of the musician allegedly infringed upon include “911, Minimini-Wana Wana, Stop Racism, Ewole, 911 instrumental, Radio, Low Waist, and No Bother.”

They were also alleged to have illegally distributed the musical works to their subscribers, without authorisation, thereby infringing on the rights of the artiste.

In the third count, the suspects were alleged to have had in their possession, the musical works and sound recordings of the artiste, other than for their personal or domestic use.

READ ALSO: Gov Akeredolu Speaks on Returning to Germany for Medical Vacation
The copyright commission said the alleged offence is punishable under Section 20 (2) (a) (b) and (c) of the Copyright Act, Cap. C28, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

Justice Ekwo had, on Feb. 25, adjourned the matter until May 15 for report, following the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF)’s interest to take over the case.

News

10th House Poised to Drive Gender Parity in Nigeria – Speaker Abbas

Published

37 minutes ago

March 4, 2025

Gloria Ikibah

…seek UK backing for constitutional reforms

By Gloria Ikibah

The Speaker House of Representatives, Rep. Tajudeen Abbas, has affirmed that the 10th Assembly will play a pivotal role in advancing gender inclusion and balance in Nigeria’s political and governance structures.

The Speaker who stated this on Monday in Abuja when he received a delegation of British parliamentarians eemphasised that the 10th House has prioritised gender parity and is actively working on constitutional amendments to entrench this goal.

Highlighting the House multiparty composition, he assured the visiting MPs that beyond political diversity, the 10th Assembly is strongly committed to promoting the rights and participation of women and youth in governance.

He said: “The 10th House is quite a diverse institution in that for the first time in the history of this legislature, we have seven different political parties being represented in the parliament. For the first time, we also have created and dedicated two standing committees to women and two for the youths. The reason being that we are being very intentional about giving these two segments of our society adequate voice to be heard in the decision-making process.

“For the women, we have the committee on Women Affairs, and that on Women in Parliament. While we also have the Committee on Youth Development, and that on Youth in Parliament. We have ensured that we don’t leave any female representative without a key leadership position in the House so that they can use that platform to also advance the cause of women in the House”.

The Speaker assured the MPs that the House under his leadership will play a decisive role in actualising gender parity.

He said: “It would also interest you to know that we have passed so many legislations, and we have equally proposed some bills in the constitution amendment to ensure that this time around, we have the decisive term for women inclusion in governance. We have proposed a legislation that will cede 33 per cent of seats for women in parliament, and we have also proposed for 30 per cent of non elective positions for women across all tiers and arms of government — borrowing a leave from our brothers and sisters in Uganda and Tanzania where similar initiatives were done in the past and it’s really working for them.

“We want to see how we can be able to convince not only our brothers here and the senators, but also the subnational legislatures where 2/3 of them will have to vote in favour for the bills to become laws. And I want to use this opportunity to thank the President and the First Lady who are both ambassadors of the legislature – the First Lady is a three-term senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and who has also gotten involved in this fight of ensuring that this time around, our women get to their rightful places in our politics.”

The Speaker therefore called on the United Kingdom parliament for support in actualising the feat saying: “These are some of the initiatives we are working on and I believe a collaboration with you in the UK parliament will go a long way. We need advice. We need support on how best to achieve this. These subject matters have been on the front burner for many years through various assemblies without any success. But this time around we want to make sure that we break that jinx by getting them passed, and we will need your support and I assure you that the constitution amendment exercise will go on as planned and we hope to ensure that women have the inclusion that they deserve.”

Earlier, leader of the delegation, Kate Ofunne Osamor, a Nigeria-born British MP, told the Speaker that they were in the House to deepen the parliamentary diplomatic ties that exist between Nigeria and the UK, and to also find out about the place of diversity and gender inclusivity in Nigeria’s Legislature and other aspects of governance.

Other members of the delegation also asked questions on different areas of Nigeria’s legislative practices relative to what obtains in the UK, just as the Speaker of the House took time to explain the leadership structure and composition of the House and how they came about.

Other Members present also provided insights into the workings of the House through its Committees as enshrined in relevant sections of the constitution.