12 news
Tuesday, 12 April, 2016
Shiite/Army clash: 347 corpses given mass burial in Kaduna —SSG We’ve been vindicated —Shiite Muhammadu Sabiu - Kaduna
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HE Kaduna State government, on Monday, announced that 347 people were killed during the December 12 Shiite/Nigerian Army clash in Zaria. Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Balarabe Lawal, disclosed this in a submission at the ongoing public hearing of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the clash. Lawal, who led a six-man government witnesses before the panel, said 191 corpses were taken from the Nigerian Army Depot, Zaria and were buried in Mando area in Kaduna. He said 156 corpses were also conveyed from the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria, to the same Mando area. The SSG said the corpses of youth members of the Islam Movement (IMN), who allegedly attempted to attack the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, LieutenantGeneral Tukur Buratai, on December 12, 2015, in Zaria. The state government said the corpses were committed into a single grave (mass burial) at the Mando area, jointly supervised by the state government officials and about 40 men of the Nigerian Army, led by an officer in the rank of a Major. The SSG said 189 suspects were being prosecuted for alleged involvement in the Zaria crises, while one suspect had died in custody. He said the state government had received several security reports from the Directorate of State Security (DSS) on the activities of the movement. According to him, several measures had been taken to address the situation before it finally escalated into the clash with the Nigerian Army. Another witness and Director-General, Kaduna State Interfaith Agency, Mr Namadi Musa, said the mass burial was conducted on December 14 and 15, respectively, and it took the officials about six hours to complete the burial. Musa said while six tonnes of Mercedes tippers conveyed the 191 corpses from the ABUTH, the Army used three heavy duty trucks to convey corpses from the Zaria Army Depot. “The mass burial was authorised through a warrant of burial obtained from a Kaduna Chief Magistrates’
Court in Kaduna,” he said. The state government blamed some of the lapses and the excesses of the movement on the inability of the previous government which did not take serious action to curtail the activities of the sect. On alleged demolition of buildings and structures of the IMN leader, the witnesses said that the demolition was based on recommendation of a committee set up by the state government. The witnesses, including officials of KASUPDA, KAPWA and the state Ministry of Works, Transport and Housing, told the panel that several other structures belonging to individuals had been demolished for poor building specifications and standards. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Mrs Saratu Haruna, General Manager, KASUPDA; Mr Namadi Musa, D-G Interfaith Agency and Professor Adamu Ahmed, Deputy CMD ABUTH, appeared before the panel.
The Justice Muhammed Lawal-Garba-led panel also took submissions from the Izala Islamic group and Gyellesu Community in Zaria. The revelations of mass burial of 347 members killed by Nigerian Army at the Kaduna Judicial Commission of Inquiry has clearly vindicated the Islamic Movement
in Nigeria (IMN), the Shiite has said. This was contained in a statement issued to newsmen on Monday and signed by the spokesman for the movement, Ibrahim Musa. The statement disclosed that, “in his submission, the Kaduna SSG, Alhaji Lawal Balarabe Abbas, who repre-
sented the state government at the JCI, confirmed that 347 members of the Islamic movement were given mass burial in the aftermath of the Zaria massacre of 12th to 14th of December, 2015. “This is a clear confirmation of what the movement had earlier made public about its members having
The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi (right), with the chairman, Joint Tax Board, Mr Tunde Fowler, during a visit of chairmen of state boards of internal revenue to the emir’s palace, in Kano.
been buried in mass graves. “The SSG also established that the secret burial took place based on a court order received by the state government and that he was, earlier in attendance at a meeting with the governor and some senators, where they deliberated on what to do with the huge numbers of dead bodies of IMN members. “This was also collaborated by the Director-General, Religious Affairs, Namadi Musa. He told the commission that he went to ABUTH, where he counted 156 corpses, and to army depot, where he counted 191 other corpses, in the presence of one Major Ogundare and buried them at midnight at Mando, Kaduna. “We remain resolute and will continue to follow peaceful means in our call for the unconditional release of our revered leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky and other brothers and sisters of the Islamic Movement under illegal detention, the statement concluded.
Tax not anti-Islam —Emir of Kano Gbola Subair - Abuja TAX practitioners got royal endorsement on Monday, when the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, asked Muslims and all Nigerians to do their duties and pay their taxes. “Tax is not anti-Islam,” he said. According to the emir, without taxes, provision of amenities like schools, roads, hospitals would not be possible. He disclosed this when the chairman of the Joint Tax Board (JTB), Mr Tunde Fowler, led 36 state chairmen of the State Boards of Internal Revenue (SBIR) to his palace in Kano, as part of the 134th meeting of the JTB. “You are welcome to Kano. We are all familiar with the good work you did in Lagos. I hope you will bring that experience to the national level so that it will help address some of the problems we are facing at the national level. “People have always said that Nigerian economy depends on oil. Oil contributes only 15 per cent to Nigeria‘s GDP (Gross Domestic Product), but government is not looking at other sources, so that those sectors will also contribute to growth in the county.
“I ask the people of Kano, every Nigerian to pay their taxes. The social services that government provide: roads, hospitals, schools are provided by taxes. “There are a lot people who believe that taxes are not Islamic. That is not correct. During the time of Sayidina Umar –(one of the caliphs of Prophet Mohammed), people paid taxes. So taxes are not new in Islam.
People should pay their taxes. People should be patient and pay their taxes. A lot of social amenities we enjoy will not be possible if we don’t pay taxes,” he said. Emir Sanusi asked the Joint Tax Board to contain the problem of multiple taxation, simplify tax laws and continue to educate taxpayers on what taxes to pay, where to pay and how to pay. Chairman of JTB, who is
also the Executive Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Fowler, said the JTB team was at the palace to receive royal blessing as they deliberated on the imperatives of transitioning from oil revenue dependency to non-oil revenue sufficiency. “With your instruction, with your understanding and encouragement, taxpayers in the North and
South will continue to do the right thing. “We will appreciate your words of encouragement as we start our meeting and deliberate on how JTB could collect taxes to assist governments to meet their mandates. “We are here to seek the blessing of the emirate council and its advice on the way forward on payment of taxes and the revenue base,” he said.
Why FOI Act not yet domesticated in states —Banire By Wale Akinselure NATIONAL Legal Adviser, All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Muiz Banire, on Monday, attributed the lack of nationwide application of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and Whistleblower bill to the non-domestication of the act in many states of the country. He said the FOI Act and Whistleblower bill only applied to states where the laws were domesticated, because the laws were not items either under the exclusive legislative list or concurrent list, but placed in the residual list of the constitution. Banire, speaking in Ibadan, Oyo State, on Monday, while presenting the two bills to the Oyo House of Assembly
for them to be enacted as laws of the state, prayed that such domestication would ensure that the bills lived up to its aim to fight corruption, ensure accountability and transparency in government at all levels. Speaking as convener, The United Action for Change,
Banire said the message of domestication by the group was expedient at a time when the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration had anchored its change mantra on accountability and transparency within government machinery.
“The issue of information which the act deals with, though a federal legislation does not have a nationwide application because it is not an item either under the exclusive legislative list or concurrent list, but placed in the residual list of the constitution.
Lagos HOS mourns Owolabi, ex-perm sec LAGOS State Head of Service, Mrs Olabowale Ademola, has condoled with the family of a late former permanent secretary in the state civil service, Chief Gbolahan Owolabi. “On behalf of the Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwumi Ambode and the entire public service, I wish to express my condolence on
the demise of your husband, father and grandfather, who retired from the Lagos State public service as a permanent secretary,” the Head of Service said in a letter of condolence addressed to the family. Ademola, who led the state government’s delegation, comprising of some members of the body of permanent secretaries to the house
of the deceased, prayed to God to grant the family the fortitude to bear the loss, as well as the repose of the soul of the departed. “As the entire public service share in the grief of your irreparable loss, we pray that the good Lord will grant you and other members of the Owolabi family the fortitude to bear the loss,” she said.