Ajuede.com

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Sunday thanked United States counterpart Donald Trump for intelligence that helped to foil attacks on Russian soil, the Kremlin said.  Putin thanked Trump “for the transfer, through special services, of information allowing the prevention of terrorist acts in Russia,” the president’s office said in a statement.  Russia’s FSB, a successor to the KGB, quoted by Russian agencies, said two Russian citizens were arrested on Friday suspected of planning an attack in St Petersburg during the New Year festivities. They appeared to have been preparing a “terrorist act”, the reports said. Although Moscow and Washington are at odds on many issues, both regularly stress their mutual determination to fight terrorism.

The total amount disbursed to farmers under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme from inception in 2009 rose to N611.5bn as of the end of November 2019. The Central Bank of Nigeria disclosed this in its November 2019 economic report Part of the report read, “In November 2019, the sum of N1.07bn was disbursed to three projects under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme. Thus, the total sum released to the economy, under the scheme from inception in 2009 to date, stood at N611.50bn in respect of 596 projects. “In November 2019, 62 projects repaid the sum of N8.15bn, of which payment by 59 projects were steady repayments, while three projects were full repayments. “The repayments brought the cumulative repayment under CACS from inception in 2009 to N384.41bn.” An analysis of the number of projects financed under the CACS by value chain indicated that of the 596 CACS sponsored projects, production accounted for 61.6 per cent and dominated the activities funded, while

Within a 10-year period covering 2010 and 2019, the Federal Inland Revenue Service recorded a revenue shortfall of N4.88tn, figures obtained from the FIRS have indicated. The FIRS data showed that during the 10-year period, the service generated about N43.41tn revenue from taxes. When compared to the N48.29tn targeted revenue set by the Federal Government for the period, this represents a shortfall of N4.88tn. A breakdown of the tax performance showed that the sum of N2.84tn was generated in 2010 against the target of N2.55tn. This exceeded the targeted revenue by N290bn during the period. For the 2011 fiscal period, the sum of N4.62tn was generated as against the collection target of N3.63bn, resulting in a positive variance of N990bn. In 2012, the actual collection was N5tn as against the revenue target of N3.63tn. This represents a positive variance of N1.37tn. For 2013 and 2014, the service generated N4.8tn and N4.71tn respectively as against the targeted revenue of

A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr Olumide Babalola, has urged the Federal High Court in Lagos to declare as anti-people the N50 quarterly card maintenance fee recently introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The lawyer, through the suit, is urging the court to nullify the December 20, 2019 circular issued by the CBN to all banks and non-bank commercial institutions for the enforcement of the card maintenance charge. Babalola contended that the N50 card maintenance charge was in bad faith, against public interest and urged the court to declare it null and void. He prayed for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the CBN and others from charging the N50 card maintenance fee, saying it was “merely an avenue to generate income for commercial banks at the expense of the public.” The lawyer said, “I know that the provision at Page 20, Clause 10.4 on the Card Maintenance Fee of the Guides is exploitative, unreasonable, done in bad faith and against public interest. “I know and

  A person stands near the scene of a church shooting at West Freeway Church of Christ on Sunday in White Settlement, Texas. Photograph: Juan Figueroa/AP Two people were killed in a shooting at a church near Fort Worth,  Texas , on Sunday morning and a third person was taken to a hospital in critical condition, officials said. MedStar Mobile Healthcare spokeswoman Macara Trusty told the Associated Press that two people were fatally shot at the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement. A third person in critical condition is being treated at a hospital and all of the victims are male, she said. MedStar is an ambulance service. Authorities have not released any details about what led to the shooting. An elder at the church told the  New York Times  that one of those killed was a security guard who responded to the shooter. “He was trying to do what he needed to do to protect the rest of us,” said the elder, Mike Tinius, calling the security guard a dear friend. “It’

Femi Falana, counsel to Omoyele Sowore, says Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation does not have the powers to order the release of any detainee out of mercy. This was in reaction to claims by Malami that he ordered the release of Omoyele Sowore, convener of RevolutionNow movement, and Sambo Dasuki, former national security adviser, out of compassion. Malami, the minister of justice said that Sowore and Dasuki were not released because of international pressure but on the grounds of respect for rule of law and compassion. “The only reasons for the release of Omoyele Sowore and Sambo Dasuki revolved around our commitment to the rule of law, obedience to court orders and compassionate grounds,” he had said. Falana, while responding to Malami via a letter, said only the president and state governors are entitled to exercise the prerogative of mercy or release any convicted person on compassionate grounds. He said, “It is trite law that once a trial court has

Borussia Dortmund have signed teenage goalscoring sensation Erling Braut Haaland from RB Salzburg, the German Bundesliga outfit announced on Monday. In a statement, Dortmund revealed that the 19-year-old, who scored eight times in the group stage of this season’s Champions League, had signed a contract until 2024 but did not mention a fee. Haaland has caught the eye of clubs around Europe after scoring 28 goals in 22 games in all competitions so far this campaign, with RB Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann admitting earlier this month that they were trying for the Norway striker’s signature. “From the beginning I had the feeling I definitely wanted to switch to this club, to walk this path,” Haaland said. In a video posted to the Dortmund website, he wished Dortmund fans a happy new year as he pored over a 2020 to-do list topped with “learn German”. Earlier in December, the forward had been spotted by local media landing in the west German city to meet with club representative