ACTING President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo Wednesday told people of South East not to panic over recent quit notice given to them by the coalition of Arewa youths to leave the 19 Northern States on or before 1st October
He said the Federal Government has made adequate arrangement to protect every citizen of the country.
This is as Prof. Osinbajo has said that he will be meeting with the leaders of all ethnic groups in the country as well as stakeholders to discuss issues on the continuous unity and existence of the country.
Recall that the Acting President had on Tuesday while meeting with the Northern Elders including the Arewa Consultative Forum, vowed that the Federal Government would deal with any person or group that threaten the peace of the country through hate speeches.
The Federal Government has also explained that the series of interactions lined up with the relevant stakeholders in the Nigeria project that started on Tuesday, will be rounded off on 22nd June.
Briefing journalists after the Federal Executive Council, FEC, presided over by the Acting President, Prof.
Osinbajo, the Minister of Information; Alhaji Lai Mohammed said that the Acting President will be addressing traditional rulers and leaders of thought from the South East on Friday.
He explained that the idea behind the consultative meeting was not just to assure that the administration was doing something about the quit notice to the Igbos to vacate the North before 1st October, but that the situation was under control.
According to the minister, “On the 22nd of June there will be a joint consultative meeting of all the groups, that is the traditional rulers, religious leaders and leaders of thought from both the south eastern part of Nigeria and the northern part of Nigeria.”
“The call for people from certain parts of the country to relocate to their region is generally very disquieting voices.
“We just want to assure Nigerians that the federal government is on top of the matter. ….Yesterday (Tuesday), the Acting President addressed leaders from the northern part of the country. At 4 p.m today (Wednesday) he is going to address leaders from the South Eastern part of the country.
“The idea is not just to assure Nigerians that we are doing something about it but also to give comfort to all Nigerians that this matter is completely under control. To assure Nigerians that any Nigerian anywhere is save, the security authorities are completely on top of the matter and that they will deal decisively with any group of people whose conduct that is believed is going to create instability in the country.
“So there is no need for anybody to panic, there is no need for anybody to move from any part of the country. The security agencies are on top of the matter and there is no reason for anybody to panic.”
Also briefing journalists, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun said that she presented a memo that was approved by the FEC to sign a multilateral convention for the implementation of tax treaty related matters.
She said, “I presented a memo which was approved by council today and permission was granted to sign a multilateral convention to implement tax treaty related matters to prevent us prevent base erosion and profit shifting.
“In simple language, this administration is very focused on revenue generation and mobilisation and part of that work is to improve our tax collection. One of the means by which major companies evade is a practice called base erosion and profit shifting which means that the profit that was made in Nigeria using accounting methods shift it to a country that has little or no tax.
