How Alpha Beta Helps Lagos Improve Revenue Generation

 They combine the work Remitta does for the federal government and, the work Interswitch did for FIRS by providing an online tax management solution in the form of Taxpromax.

Before ABC came, MDAs had their own bank accounts that were also monitored by the state treasury office (STO), they collected revenue independently & reported them to the state government periodically.

This was difficult to track in real time cos even after payments were made, there was usually a long process of reconciliation to properly determine what was revenue to the state or administrative revenue to MDAs.

That system also allowed a lot of corruption cos even after paying to banks, MDAs were responsible for issuing revenue receipts. This is without factoring the MDAs that were even collecting cash.

ABC created a system where citizens could use a unique ID to pay state revenues and, all revenues paid could be accounted for,organized & reported in real time.
This stopped the payment of state revenue into MDA accounts, everything went directly into the state treasury account.

In addition to this, the system automatically generates a treasury receipt as you pay at the bank, this stopped the issuance of treasury receipts by MDAs and, only Banks could issue these receipts once payments were made

The System made it possible for MDAs to verify payment claims by citizens, it also made it possible for citizens to verify their payments and easily get a statement of their payment history without stress..

It allowed LIRS & other MDAs build proper database of revenue paying citizens & organizations in the state, this was good for planning and also allowed the state to know where it was lacking in terms of revenue drive.

In recent years, ABC’s services have gone beyond creating a platform for reporting & aggregating state revenue, they also created a digital tax administration solution known as the Etax platform for LIRS.

This platform was introduced fully in 2019, it leverages on an open standard platform which enables enterprise wide data, greater transparency and increased taxpayer self-services.

Taxpayers can file returns, get assessed, object assessments and forward necessary documents for reconciliation without leaving their homes/offices. it was very helpful during the covid lockdown,reason Tax Revenue went up from 349bn in 2019 to 356bn in 2020 despite Covid

Besides the fact that ABC has provided some of these services to Lagos, they have provided some of these services to other Nigerian states at one point or another, including but not limited to Bayelsa & Plateau..

They’ve also provided some of these services to some regional governments across Africa..
Today,many states have engaged companies that provide similar solutions,Kaduna, Delta & FCTIRS use theirs.
FIRS has TAXPROMAX provided by interswitch and, FG has Remitta like I said earlier

As erroneously believed, ABC does not collect taxes for LIRS or any MDA, they just provide the technology and platform that allows MDAs work effectively.

@MustaphaNdajiwo has corrected me on this, the Taxpromax solution was developed by FIRS but, they only partnered with payment solutions companies like interswitch.
Thank you

We Will Occupy Your Offices Nationwide, LP Tells INEC

 The Labour Party has threatened that it will call on its members to occupy offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission nationwide for allegedly frustrating its petition against the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

The spokesman for the Presidential Campaign Council of the party, Dr Yunusa Tanko, in a statement obtained Saturday, accused INEC of disobeying the order of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal directing the electoral umpire to grant the party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, access to the certified true copies of materials used in the conduct of the poll.

“It will be recalled that the aforesaid order of the presidential election petition tribunal was duly served on INEC on March 3, 2023, despite the fact that they were present and represented at the tribunal when the Order was made.

“Not minding the service of the said order on INEC, and a reminder letter dated March 6, 2023, and delivered same date at the INEC Headquarters Abuja, the electoral umpire has continued to ignore and or disobey the valid Order of such magnitude till now,” Tanko said.

The PUNCH reports that the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on March 3 granted the request of the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and his LP counterpart, Obi’s request to inspect the election materials used during February 25 presidential poll.

Atiku and Obi had approached the Presidential Election Court to seek permission for the inspection of election materials used during the poll.

The PUNCH also reports that Atiku and Obi refused to concede defeat in the February 25 presidential election, vowing to recover their mandate in court.

The two candidates rebuffed the gesture of conciliation made by the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, who in his acceptance speech after he was declared the winner of the poll asked them to support him in the task of building the nation.

Both the PDP and the LP rejected the election results over alleged rigging, and voter intimidation among other reasons.

Reacting further, Tanko said, “The action of INEC under reference also constitutes for all intent and purposes, an act of judicial insubordination and willful refusal to comply with the order of court.

“As we speak INEC has chosen to obey the court order given to it to reconfigure the BIVAS machine, which they doing right now and ignoring the order granted to us to inspect electoral materials.

“We, therefore, call on the general public to note the level of lawlessness and brazen disobedience to a lawful order of a court by an important statutory agency such as INEC, and which is a well-calculated attempt to undermine and frustrate the presentation of the petition by the Labour Party and its presidential candidate before the tribunal in good time.

“We, therefore, want to state that we will not fail to call our supporters to march to INEC offices nationwide in a non-violent protest which is allowed by law.”

Rain Of Worms Falls Down The Sky In China, Residents Panic

 Citizens of the Chinese province of Liaoning were told to find shelter after it looked like it started to rain worms.

A viral clip showed the area apparently being showered with little worms, which were splattered all over cars.

The video showed residents covering themselves with umbrellas as they go along with their routines and wander past.

While the cause of the slimy creature calamity has yet to be uncovered, the scientific journal Mother Nature Network suggested that the animals were dropped after being swept up by heavy winds.

The periodical also noted that this type of occurrence happens after a storm when insects are caught up in a whirlpool.

Another theory suggested that the worms were actually poplar flowers — a tulip tree whose blooms resemble the squirmy beasts.

Viewers were stunned by the city’s current problem, with one person stating: “These are not worms or animals, but flower stalks dropped from trees.”

Someone else claimed that the video was fake and looked like a prank.

“Strange phenomena,” a user added, with another weighing in, “If i was just minding my business on a casual day in China and it started raining worms ?? i’d just die.”

A similar odd event went down last December when it was believed that iguanas could rain down from trees in Florida due to colder temperatures.

“They slow down or become immobile when it’s below 40,” WFTV meteorologist Brian Shields posted on Twitter last winter. “They may fall from trees, but they aren’t dead.”

The incident is reportedly not uncommon when colder weather hits the Sunshine state. When temperatures drop, the reptiles become stiff and tumble to the ground.

While thermometer plunges stun the invasive reptiles, the iguanas won’t necessarily die. Many will simply wake up as temperatures rise.

Why I Am Not Happy On My 76th Birthday - Pete Edochie

 Famous veteran Nollywood actor, Pete Edochie has said he was unhappy as he clocked 76 years.

In a video shared on his Instagram page, he expressed his reasons for unhappiness.

I’m not happy because I can’t go to bank to withdraw my own money, Pete Edochie says

He said, “I’m 76 today and thank God who has brought me thus far. I should be happy today but I’m not because I can’t go to the bank to withdraw money which belongs to me and was told it’s for my own good.

“I can’t go to the filling station and buy fuel for my car, again must be for my own good. Electricity has been epileptic and has even now become worse. Elections manifest themselves as selection and tried to find out why but no one offered any explanation, so I said to myself, ‘Pete, it must be for your own good’.”

Pete further expressed grievance i no the video caption, said “I have observed the events in our Nation for the past few weeks as it unfolds and I have chosen a special day like my 76th year on earth to address that in few words.

I have deduced that Being a Nigerian is a full time job. Being a Nigerian comes with an inherent perpetual anxiety. We need explanation. Or is it all REALLY FOR OUR OWN GOOD?

“Was the Presidential election an ELECTION or SELECTION? We need EXPLANATION as a NATION,” he wrote.

Mahmood Yakubu Should Face Prosecution, PDP Tells Police, DSS

 The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded that security agencies such as the Department of State Services and the Police investigate and prosecute the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu over his alleged complicity in the criminal manipulation and alteration of election results.

This, the PDP said should be a natural follow-up to the INEC chairman’s resignation from office.

National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, said this at a press conference, at the party’s National Secretariat, Abuja, on Friday.

The PDP Spokesman said, “Prof. Mahmood Yakubu’s exit as Chairman of INEC will be the first step towards sanitizing the Electoral Commission and restoring the confidence of Nigerians especially as the nation prepares for the rescheduled March 18, 2023, Governorship and State Assembly elections.

“Furthermore, the PDP demands that the Inspector General of Police and the Director General of the Directorate of State Services (DSS) immediately commence investigations into the electoral violations and manipulations by INEC with the view to prosecuting Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and other officials of the Commission for electoral offences.”

He explained that these demands came after the party reviewed the widely-condemned infractions, brazen violation of the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 and alteration of election results by the Prof. Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC and came to the conclusion that it was aimed at subverting the will of Nigerians in the February 25, 2023 Presidential and National Assembly Elections.

Ologunagba equally said, “The PDP has also reviewed the latest scheme by INEC to reconfigure the BVAS devices, erase and destroy evidence of its manipulation of the Presidential election, deny Nigerians and political parties, especially our Party and Candidate access to relevant information required to prosecute our case at the Presidential Election Tribunal.

“From all indications, the INEC under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu was compromised to rig the election by brazenly violating the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 as well as INEC’s Regulations, Guidelines and Manual issued for the election.

“It is also obvious that the Commission under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu deliberately sabotaged the uploading and transmission of results directly from the Polling Units to give room for the criminal mutilation, alteration and switching of election results across the nation in favour of the APC as now abundantly exposed in the pictorial and video evidence of compromised results sheets in many parts of the Country.”

He said further. “Several evidence abound in States across the six Geo-Political Zones of the Country where winning figures lawfully scored by the PDP were switched in favour of the APC; where results sheet from polling centers won by the PDP were destroyed and replaced with fake results sheets in which APC was allocated unearned winning figures.

“This further explains why the INEC Chairman rushed to announce and declare manipulated results that were not transmitted directly from the Polling Units to INEC’s Server/Website and ignored the objections and complaints raised during the collation of results in deliberate violation of the provisions of Section 64 (4) (a) and (b), 64 (6) (a)-(d), and 65 (1) (c) of the Electoral Act. 2022.

“For emphasis while Section 64 (4) (a) and (b) expressly require the INEC Chairman as the Chief Returning Officer to announce only results that were transmitted directly from the Polling Units, Sections 64 (6) (a)-(d) and 65 (1) (c) compel INEC, in the case of disputes, complaints or objections regarding a collated result or the result of an election from any Polling Unit, to take steps including the review of collation where they are made contrary to the provisions of the Law, Regulations, Guidelines and Manual issued for the election.

“By flagrantly violating these provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 as well as INEC’s Regulations, Guidelines and Manual for the election, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu is not only culpable of serious electoral offence but also betrayed, thrashed and threw overboard the trust, confidence and hope Nigerians reposed in him and the Electoral Commission to deliver a free, fair and credible election in the country.

“The continuing stay of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu in office as Chairman of INEC is therefore vexatious, injurious to the integrity of the Electoral Commission and an unpardonable assault to the credibility of our electoral process, the sensibility of Nigerians and the International Community.

“Moreover, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu’s stay in office is capable of paving the way for the suppression, tampering and destruction of critical evidence required to further expose the infractions and violations by the Commission at the Presidential Election Tribunal.

“This fear is evidenced by the desperation by INEC to reconfigure the BVAS devices to erase vital data contained therein.

“Consequently, the PDP demands that the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu immediately step down from office, having abused the confidence and dashed the hope of millions of Nigerians as well as political parties and the International Community for a free, fair and credible election.

“Nigerians no longer have faith in Prof. Mahmood Yakubu’s capacity and integrity to manage a democracy institution as sensitive as INEC.”

“In the same vein the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should open investigation into allegations that certain top officials of INEC were heavily compromised financially to manipulate the electoral process.


“The PDP notes the reports of various International Bodies in disapproval of actions by the leadership of INEC in undermining democracy in the conduct of the February 25, 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

“In that regard, the PDP calls on the International Community to immediately impose sanctions including travel restrictions on the INEC Chairman and other top officials of the Commission over their roles in compromising democracy in Nigeria.

“The PDP calls on Nigerians to remain calm but very alert as our Party continues to take steps to retrieve our mandate at the Presidential Election Tribunal.

Joe Ajaero To Residents: Stock Up Your House, Imo Will Be On Indefinite Lockdow

 The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged Imo State residents to stock up their homes with basic needs to survive as the Union prepares for an indefinite strike.

President of NLC, Joe Ajaero revealed this in a statement made available to THE WHISTLER.

Ajaero said the state government has deliberately terrorized residents through some negative actions of some operatives who have been bequeathed with the powers of the state.

He said that the state government, through its information commissioner has been peddling falsehood.

He accused the Imo state government of turning the once-prided “Eastern Heartland” into a toxic and extremely unpleasant environment.

Ajaero said “Hobbesian state of nature, a state once prided itself as the Eastern Heartland has become prevalent, exposing not just workers in the state but institutions and individuals to the most horrendous of scare, fear, and violence in their daily activities.

“In the pursuit of our legitimate strike action to restore sanity to the state’s industrial relations sphere, we wish to advise that those traveling to Imo state through the airport to look for other alternatives, those that make use of petroleum products should make efforts to seek alternatives and those that use electricity to seek other options outside the National Grid.

“We are resolved to press home our demands and until these infractions are remedied, we will continue escalating the industrial action till the government is compelled to show reason and restore meaningful and effective dialogue in the state.”

He gave some of the reasons for the industrial action to include 20 months salary arrears owed to some workers stigmatized as ghost workers; declaration of about 11,000 workers in the state as ghost workers; intimidation and harassment of Trade Union leaders; and continued use of thugs and instruments of violence against workers in the state among others.

At The Centre Of Our Campaign Will Be A Strong Desire To Serve The People - Obi

 Labour Party's presidential candidate, Peter Obi has said that a strong desire for service to the people and a firm commitment to nation building will be at the centre of the party's campaign, IGBERETV reports.

He said this while addressing party candidates in Anambra State on Friday.

He wrote on his Twitter handle;

"Yesterday, I shared great moments with all the candidates of our great party, LP, in Anambra State, both at the Federal and State level. I reminded them that at the centre of our campaign will be a strong desire for service to the people and a firm commitment to nation building. 

"We must build a better nation for ourselves and for the future generations. Once again, I congratulated our candidates who won various elective posts at the Federal Level, and encouraged those contesting at the State level to give in their best.

"I listened to their challenges and wished them well. They shall succeed. A New Nigeria is here. -PO"