The State Government has said it will on Wednesday open bid for firms that showed interest in the construction of the Fourth Mainland Bridge.

 

The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, stated this while addressing the press as part of activities lined up to mark Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s 200 days in office.

 

Omotoso, who said local and international firms expressed interest in the construction of the bridge, said the bidding would be done at a ceremony to be hosted by the state government.

 

The commissioner added that The Sanwo-Olu administration had put a special focus on infrastructure, traffic management and transportation to reduce gridlock.

 

All is not well within the Presidency over alleged misappropriation of N40 billion by the Federal Inland Revenue Service under the immediate past Chairman, Babatunde Fowler.

 

Fowler who was appointed to superintendent Nigeria’s apex tax office was recently replaced by President Buhari with a tax consultant, Muhammad Nami.

 

Sources from the Villa said the ‘misappropriated’ money, which was purportedly used as ‘political campaign fund’ during 2019 general elections, did not sit well with the ‘Seat of Power’ as probe has been ordered and culprits to be prosecuted.

 

While Mr. Fowler is said to be caught in the web of the said fund, an influential and powerful political gladiator in the Southwest was said to have received a ‘paltry’ sum of N3 billion, which is less than 10 percent of the ‘campaign fund.’

 

It was gathered that already, some top management staff of FIRS have been arrested and are being interrogated on corruption allegations by anti-graft agencies.

 

Recall that in August, the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, had queried Fowler for what the Presidency considered as unacceptably dwindling tax revenue since 2015 when the Buhari administration took over.

Kyari, in the query letter, ordered Fowler to explain why in 2015, FIRS set N4.7 trillion target but was only able to make N3.7 trillion in the actual collection.

 

Another lecturer, Dr. Victoria Adeniyi, has passed on.

The death was the third of such incident that would occur in the university in a little over one week.

 

The late Adeniyi, until her death, was the acting Head, Department of Dramatic Arts of the university.

 

Besides Dr Nicholas Igbokwe, who was found dead in his office penultimate Friday, the university also lost Prof Jerome Elusiyan on Friday, December 13, when he was shot dead by gunmen.

 

Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities, OAU chapter, Dr Adeola Egbedokun described the death of the lecturers as a “sad development.”

Former Military President, Ibrahim Babangida, has denied rumor of his death.

 

He said he is very much alive and bubbling.

Babangida’s spokesman, Kassim Afegbua, in a statement on Sunday condemned the report which he described as fake news, noting that it was the third time such an incident would occur in 2019.

 

The former military president’s aide was, however, hopeful that the Social Media Bill before the National Assembly would tackle the spread of fake news in the country.

 

To prove how well he is doing, Afegbua said the elder statesman attended to some of his friends and associates who visited him on Sunday at his Minna Hilltop mansion in Niger State.