By Anayo Okoli

Umuahia— AS the search for the abducted Lagos NUJ chairman and four others continues, Abia State council of the NUJ yesterday held a prayer session seeking God’s intervention, just as they condemned the abduction of journalists.

Abia NUJ also appealed to security agencies in the state to spread their dragnets to all nooks and crannies of the state to ensure that the abducted journalists were rescued from the hands of their captors without being harmed.

Meanwhile, Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State has vehemently condemned the abduction of the journalists, describing the act as inhuman.

Governor Orji wondered why journalists “who are vibrant and committed to nation building” should be made targets.
Regretting the incident, Orji, who spoke through his media aide, Mr. Ugochukwu Emezue, assured the people that security operatives would track down the abductors.

He also gave the assurance that the security personnel deployed to the state by the Federal Government were working hard to ensure that the state was crime free.

Fashola signs tax harmony Bill to law
LAGOS—As part of the effort to tackle the problem of double taxation, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State yesterday signed into law a bill that will harmonise all taxes payable in the state.

This came following series of complaints by Lagos residents over double taxation saying, they were paying the same tax levies to both the state government and the local councils.

The law empowers the 20 local councils and 37 Local Council Development Area, LCDAs to collect 15 taxes including: shop and kiosk, licensing fees for alcohol, domestic animal license fee
excluding poultry, radio and Television, Wharf landing Bill, Motor park both Okada and Motor park, cemetery and burial ground permit, street naming registration fee, marriage/birth/death registration, tenement rates among others.

While signing the bill termed the “Harmonised Tax Levies” collected by Local Government and Local Council Development Area, LCDAs into law, Fashola said that the law would help to address the issue double taxation in the state.

The governor urged Lagos residents to resist paying any fine on the road and should ensure that fines were paid to the appropriate banks.