BusinessDay 26 Feb 2018

A6 BUSINESS DAY
C002D5556 Monday 26 February 2018
NEWS
Finally, FG confirms 110
Dapchi schoolgirls missing
ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Abuja
Federal Government
has finally
confirmed that 110
Dapchi schoolgirls
remain unaccounted
for, following an attack on
their school in Yobe State,
about a week ago.
Minister of information
and culture, Lai Mohammed,
announced the figure after a
meeting between a Federal
Government delegation and
representatives of key stakeholders,
including the state
government, the college, the
parents, security agencies and
Bursari Local Government,
where Dapchi is situated, in
Damaturu on Sunday.
“The Federal Government
has confirmed that 110 students
of the Government Science
and Technical College in
Dapchi, Yobe State, are so far
unaccounted for, after insurgents
believed to be from a
faction of Boko Haram invaded
their school on Monday
(19 Feb. 2018),” read a statement
from Mohammed’s office
Sunday evening.
The minister said, based
on the briefings from the principal
of the college, Adama
Abdulkarim, and the state
commissioner for education,
Mohammed Lamin, 906 students
- out of whom 110 have
not been accounted for - were
in the school on the day of the
attack.
Mohammed also announced
that the Federal
Government had directed
the police and civil defence
authorities in Yobe State to
immediately deploy their personnel
to all the schools in the
state in order to ensure the
security and safety of the students
and their staffers.
The minister, however,
assured that the Federal
Government, had stepped
up efforts to rescue the girls
and return them safely to
their parents, saying the security
agencies are working
on many leads regarding the
whereabouts of the girls.
‘’This is the second time in
four days that a Federal Government
delegation would
visit Yobe State since the unfortunate
incident. This is a
measure of the seriousness
with which we are addressing
the issue. The security forces
are leaving no stone unturned
in their search for the girls.
‘’We are back here in Yobe
as part of efforts to provide
some succour to the parents
of the girls, to let them know
that they are not alone and
also to reassure them that
we will not rest until we have
found the girls. We will carry
the parents along on the efforts
we are making,” he said.
For a few years now, Nigeria’s
North East region has
come under heavy attack by
the Boko Haram, an extremist,
Islamic, terrorist organiza-
Nigeria’s tax base rises 35% to 17m
DAVID IBEMERE
Nigeria’s plan to
grow its taxpayers
base has
recorded a 35
percent increase in both
corporate and individual
to 17 million, up from the
previous 14 million taxpayers,
as government
targets N6.747 trillion
from tax in 2018.
The highest new registered
tax payers came
from Kano, 921,000 out of
the 4 million increased recorded
since 2016.
Tunde Fowler, executive
chairman, Federal Inland
Revenue Services (FIRS),
who disclosed this while
speaking with journalist
weekend, said the government
had no plans yet to
extend Voluntary Assets
and Income Declaration
Scheme (VAIDS), ending
March 31, calling on individuals,
corporate organisations
to regularise their
tax status or face the law.
With a tax to GDP ratio
of only 6 percent, Fowler
said, “The country cannot
develop unless everyone
sees tax as a compulsory
duty.
“I was at the United Nations,
and experts came
up with a formula warning
that if a country tax to GDP
ratio is below 15 percent
it is unlikely that they can
expect economic development
in that country
or any infrastructure. In
2016, Nigeria was about 16
percent; we are still working
on the 2017 Nigerian
figures.
“If Nigerians want to
feel the impact of the government
they must begin
to see themselves as part
of the process of development
and pay their tax. Nigeria
has no business being
under 15 percent.”
According to Fowler,
VAIDS is not only for the
wealthy but for every individuals
and organisations
that have defaulted in their
tax payment.
tion, which President Buhari’s
government claims to have
decimated and dislodged.
The attack on Dapchi
schoolgirls is coming almost
four years after about 276
female students were kidnapped
from the Government
Secondary School in
the Chibok town in Borno
State.
Buhari last Wednesday
directed the ministers of defence,
Mansur Dan-Ali; information,
Lai Mohammed; and
foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama,
to visit Dapchi village
in Yobe to assess the reported
abduction of schoolgirls.
According to the statement,
the Federal Government
delegation, which
comprised the Ministers of
Information and Culture
as well as that of Interior,
Abdulrahman Dambazau,
held an enlarged meeting
that was attended by
Governor Ibrahim Geidam
of Yobe State; members of
the state cabinet, the principal
and vice principal of
the school, representatives
of the parents of the missing
girls and security agencies,
among others.
Dambazau, minister
of interior, also speaking
after the meeting said the
delegation embarked on
the trip in order to get the
facts right ‘’so that the approach
to the solution can
be correct.
“Every economically active
individual must have a
tax clearance. We are consolidating
a database that
will ensure everyone gets
to know their tax payment
records, and every individual,
companies must
remit. Our consultants are
currently designing a VAT
forms certificate that will
display every business; no
one can be exempted from
the tax payment system. As
far there is need to spend
money, we will evaluate
them and tax them on
that,” he said.