Cristiano Ronaldo reacted furiously at a pitch invader who grabbed him by the neck following Juventus 2 – 0 win against Bayern Leverkusen on Wednesday night (Dec. 11) in Germany.

At the final whistle of the game in Germany, the overzealous fan approached him from behind and grabbed his neck as he tried to take a selfie with the superstar footballer.

This left Ronaldo angry as the fan was immediately detained by a steward before he could take the selfie. The Portuguese striker appeared to shout ‘Are you crazy?’ at the fan as he was taken away.

It was the second time in the match Ronaldo was targeted by a pitch invader, having escaped from one earlier in the game.

Juventus eased to victory and confirmed top spot in Group D after their 2 – 0 win against Bayern Leverkusen. Ronaldo scored in the  75th minute to open the scoring, before Gonzalo Higuain sealed the win with a late goal in the stoppage time.

The Senate on Tuesday resolved to probe the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and its subsidiary, the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) over an allegedly failure to remit N20 trillion revenue to the Federation Account.

CBN reportedly collected the amount as stamp duty from banks and financial institutions in the country.

The resolution follows a motion by Senator representing Ondo central, Ayo Akinyelure.

“The Central Bank of Nigeria and NIBBS have technically refused to comply with the presidential directives for the recovery of over N20 trillion revenue into the coffers of government,”

“The CBN and NIBSS deliberately failed to cooperate and comply with the directives of Mr President for the realisation of over N20 trillion revenue due from stamp duties collected for 2013 to 2016 and subsequently over N5 trillion minimum revenue due to be collected annually to the federation account to be shared among states of the federation for infrastructural and economic development.

“The Senate must consider whether the target N20 trillion fund is being recycled into private banks when federal government had directed its recovery,” he said.

The lawmakers expressed concerns that despite government decision to appoint a consultant to help it recovered the money; the CBN and NIBSS have technically refused to comply with the presidential directive for the recovery of the money into the Federation Account.

Senator Isah Jibrin in his contribution said, “I want to support this motion. The issue is a major problem with financial remittance. The issue is to unravel who is benefiting from the non-compliance of this directive from President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The Senate then resolved to Mandate the Committee on Finance to investigate this issue of over N20 trillion unremitted stamp duties revenue due to the Federal Government of Nigeria from banks and other financial institutions through (NIBSS) a subsidiary of CBN for 2013 – 2016 and financial accountability of stamp duty collections from 2016 when the CBN officially directed all banks to collect on behalf of the federal government to date.

In his concluding remarks, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said, “I engaged the Ministry of Finance and CBN for an interaction, and I discovered that what we have been expecting to be available as stamp duty is not so.

“I was under the impression that we had over N20 trillion somewhere. It will interest you to know that we don’t even have N1 trillion. What has happened is because those that are supposed to collect the stamp duties were taking advantage of the non-electronic transaction.

“With the passage of the finance bill, this is an opportunity we have to start getting what ordinarily should go to the government.

“The banks and many private organizations have taken advantage of the way the stamp duties have been.

“I want to believe that from January 2020, when the Finance Bill will start being effective, the stamp duty collection will be significantly improved,” he said.

Lawan added that is for our Finance Committee to monitor closely what the collection should be.

“We would like to know in the first quarter how much they have collected, and if they have not met targets; if they have met targets, how do we do better than that? The idea is not to slow agencies to do whatever they want.”

Wife of Nigerian president Aisha Buhari has accused Garba Shehu of disloyalty and insubordination to the presidency, saying the presidential spokesman was loyal to Mamman Daura, her husband’s nephew.

“He has shifted his loyalty from the President to others who have no stake in the compact that the President signed with Nigerians on May 29, 2015 and 2019,” Mrs Buhari said in a statement on Wednesday.

“To make matters worse, Mr. Shehu has presented himself to these people as a willing tool and executioner of their antics, from the corridors of power even to the level of interfering with the family affairs of the President.”

Tension is brewing at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as members of staff have kicked against the decision of the immediate past Chairman of the service, Mr Babatunde fowler to handover to the Coordinating Director, Domestic Taxes Group, Abiodun Aina in acting capacity.

It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had announced a replacement for Fowler on Monday, necessitating his handover to Aina as acting chairman pending when President Buhari’s nominee will be confirmed by the Senate.

The workers, at an emergency meeting held on Tuesday at the Association of Civil Servants’ secretariat in Abuja, insisted that Fowler’s action violated the presidential directive on the handover.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the workers said Aina could not be regarded as the most senior director in the FIRS.

The communiqué, signed, by 17 senior officials of the union, was sent to the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed; the President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria and the President of the Nigeria Civil Service Union.

It read, “The attention of the Joint Union Council of FIRS has been drawn to the handover of the chairmanship of FIRS on acting capacity to Mr Abiodun Aina on Monday December 9 2019.

“This was a clear departure from the Presidential directive on the handover as he (Aina) is not the most senior director.

“Mr Abiodun Aina in the first instance does not have the basic qualifications to be employed into the Service. Secondly, his appointment to the position of Coordinating Director was against the provision of Section 2.19 of the FIRS Human Resource Policies and Processes.

“The section states that “Appointment to the post of the Coordinating Director shall be made by the board on the recommendations of the executive chairman. The appointment shall be open to all confirmed directors of the Service and it shall be competitive based on experience, competence and seniority.”

According to the union, Aina was never a director in the Service, but a Senior Special Assistant to Fowler.

It also threatened that if the President’s directive was not reversed by Friday, it would no longer guarantee industrial harmony at the service.

“If by the close of work on Friday, 13th December, no action is taken to this effect, the union will no longer guarantee further industrial harmony in the system”, the workers insisted

President Muhammadu Buhari has named Mr. Edward Adamu as Chairman of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria.

This was contained in a letter sent to the Senate by the President on Tuesday.

Details later…