China has rolled out the red carpet to welcome Russian president Vladimir Putin for a potentially consequential and heavily symbolic state visit that will be closely watched in the West.

Mr Putin’s second visit in less than a year comes as Western nations, led by the US, are putting pressure on China to stop throwing its economic and industrial weight behind Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The two-day trip is Mr Putin’s first abroad since starting his new term as president earlier this month.

Mr Putin arrived in Beijing on Thursday morning to a grand fanfare, with a red carpet reception outside the Great Hall of the People where a marching band played the Red Army Choir classic Moscow Nights. There he was greeted by Chinese president Xi Jinping, and the two shook hands for the cameras before doing laps of the grounds.

Mr Putin is meeting Mr Xi for the fourth time since the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022, and has been billed as marking the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between their countries.

Mr Xi told Mr Putin he was prepared “to consolidate the friendship between the two peoples for generations to come”.

“In the new journey ahead, China is willing to always be Russia’s trustworthy good neighbour, good friend and good partner, strengthening generation-after-generation friendship between the two peoples and jointly achieving rejuvenation of their respective countries as well as upholding justice in the world,” he said.

He also congratulated his “old friend” Mr Putin for winning a fifth term as president that will keep him in power until at least 2030.

Mr Putin and Mr Xi are set to discuss ways to strengthen their “no limits” partnership which was announced at a previous meeting between them nearly two years ago.

The West has been testing this partnership by pressuring China to end economic and industrial support that has enabled Russia to blunt the impact of American and European sanctions cutting it off from global markets and supply chains.

China’s bilateral trade with Russia soared by 26 per cent to a record $240bn last year.

Analysts told The Independent that Beijing and Moscow will try to find ways to expand bilateral trade and sidestep Western sanctions.

“The Putin-Xi meeting is both consequential and symbolic as they will definitely seek to strengthen their partnership in the face of enormous fatigue and reluctance to support the war in Ukraine among Western leaders,” said Swaran Singh, an international relations expert and professor of diplomacy at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.

For Mr Putin, the visit is a chance to show off his alliance with the world’s second largest economy and signal that he still has powerful friends, despite being otherwise largely isolated on the global stage.

“Putin’s visit to Beijing, which is usually full of pomp and show, will be a good opportunity of portraying himself as an acceptable leader while seeking endorsement from Xi for his actions in Ukraine,” Mr Singh said.

On the eve of his visit, Mr Putin hailed the Chinese leadership’s understanding of the “root causes and global geopolitical significance” of the Ukraine war and welcomed Beijing’s peace plan to end the conflict.

“We are seeking a comprehensive, sustainable and just settlement of this conflict through peaceful means,” he told the Chinese news agency Xinhua. “We are open to a dialogue on Ukraine, but such negotiations must take into account the interests of all countries involved in the conflict, including ours.”

Mr Putin added that they plan to have “closer cooperation in industry and high-tech, outer space and peaceful atom, artificial intelligence, renewable energy and other innovative sectors”.

“Putin’s visit to Beijing, which includes a delegation of Russian cabinet members and the heads of state-owned banks and energy corporations, shows the Russia-China ‘comprehensive partnership of strategic coordination for a new era’ continues to move forward with full force,” said Dr Jonathan Ward, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC and author of The Decisive Decade.

Dr Ward noted that with Chinese support for Russia in Europe and Russian support for China on Taiwan, “there may be much more dangerous activity to come in the years ahead as these two authoritarian states continue to deepen their relationship”.

Washington has claimed that Beijing is aiding Russia’s war in Ukraine by providing satellite intelligence, parts for fighter jets, microchips and other equipment while filling Moscow’s war chest with record oil imports. For this, the US has sanctioned several Chinese companies and threatened to blacklist Chinese banking institutions unless they suspend business with Russian companies.

China has not directly sold arms to Russia since the Ukraine war began, but has exported so-called “dual-use” components that can be used in weapons manufacturing as well as to non-military ends. Beijing claims it is neutral in the Ukraine conflict and insists it hasn’t broken US sanctions over the war.

But Beijing’s tactical backing of Moscow has also angered the European Union, with questions over Ukraine overshadowing a recent trip to France by Mr Xi that was supposed to serve as a charm offensive. Mr Xi, during his first visit to Europe in five years, insisted that “China is neither the creator of the crisis, nor a party to it or a participant”.

“I don’t think China will significantly increase its support to Russia that may lead to Russia having a much stronger war-fighting capability. Very likely, China will continue to argue its commercial transactions with Russia are normal international trade and attempt to maintain roughly the same level of trade relations with Russia,” Li Mingjiang, an associate professor at Singapore’s Rajaratnam School of International Studies, told The Independent.

“Now that the US and European countries are exerting quite strong pressures on China’s export of dual-use technologies and equipment to Russia, Putin may seek commitment from the Chinese leader that China will not waver under Western pressures.”

While Mr Putin is likely to seek further support from Beijing as it gains ground in Ukraine, Mr Xi needs Moscow to counterbalance the US.

America’s support for Taiwan – which it formally acknowledges is a part of China but says it will support against any attempt at forceful occupation by mainland forces – its naval presence in the South China Sea, repeated threats of sanctions and escalating trade war have greatly damaged relations with the Asian superpower.

In this context, Mr Singh said, the Chinese president will not fundamentally change his approach to showing support for Russia.

The share of coal in India’s power sector dropped to less than half for the first time in decades, indicating a major milestone in the South Asian country’s shift towards renewables.

In the first quarter of 2024, India added a record-breaking 13,669MW of power generation capacity, with renewable energy accounting for a substantial 71.5 per cent share.

This marks a pivotal moment as coal’s share of the total power capacity dropped below 50 per cent for the first time since the 1960s.

The figures, published in a quarterly report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) on Wednesday, showed that India is on path to reach its target of 50 per cent cumulative power generation capacity from non-fossil fuel-based sources by 2030 way ahead of its time.

Even though the country continued to generate more electricity from coal, the additional renewable capacity point to a more sustainable future for India’s electricity sector, the report said.

This comes amidst a global trend where coal demand in G7 countries has plummeted to record lows, with a recent meeting resulting in a collective commitment to phase out unabated coal power generation by 2035.

Experts said this spike in more renewable projects comes as the world recovers from recent pandemic and war related shocks, and India is paving its way ahead as a renewable powerhouse.

“After a slump from 2019 to 2022 due to supply-chain issues and global price spikes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the market has rebounded and gone from strength to strength,” said the report’s contributing author, Vibhuti Garg.

“There is strong investor interest in the Indian utility-scale renewable energy market,” he added. “The primary reasons are the large-scale potential for market growth, central government support in terms of targets and regulatory frameworks, and higher operating margins.”

India issued a record-breaking 69GW in utility-scale renewable energy projects, according to the report released by IEEFA and JMK Research.

India has also rocketed to third in the world’s solar power generation rankings, behind only China and the US, according to Ember’s fifth annual Global Electricity Review of 80 countries, released last week.

Ranked ninth in 2015, India has now surpassed Japan, which, along with fellow G7 member Germany, has a stubbornly high demand for coal.

“A renewables-powered future is now becoming a reality,” said Aditya Lolla, Ember’s Asia programme director. “Solar power, in particular, is growing at an unprecedented pace.

“Our report concludes that the rapid growth in solar and wind has brought the world to a crucial turning point – likely this year – where fossil generation starts to decline at a global level.”

However, India continues to grapple with coal dependence, especially during adverse weather conditions and surges in power demand.

While the report says this dependence isn’t likely to end this year, the record growth in renewable capacity shows that despite this challenge, India’s renewable energy sector shows no signs of slowing down.

This article was amended on 16 May 2024. It originally stated that coal no longer accounts for the majority of India’s power supply, but that was incorrect. Coal no longer accounts for the majority of the capacity of India’s power stations.

A massive manhunt was underway in France on Wednesday for armed assailants who ambushed a prison convoy, killing two prison officers, seriously injuring three others and springing the inmate they were escorting. The prime minister vowed the gang would be caught, saying, “They will pay.”

“We are tracking you, we will find you and we will punish you,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said in parliament, to applause from lawmakers. “They will pay for what they have done.”

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said “unprecedented” efforts were being deployed. Hundreds of officers were mobilized in the search for the escaped convict, Mohamed Amra, and the assailants who laid in wait for the prison van transporting him, ramming a car into it before opening fire on Tuesday.

The violence of the attack shocked France. Prison workers held moments of silence Wednesday outside prisons in Paris and elsewhere to commemorate the officers who were killed.

Darmanin, speaking Wednesday on RTL radio, expressed hope that Amra could be caught “in the coming days.” Without giving full details about the extent of the manhunt, he said 450 officers had been deployed in the region of the attack in Normandy in northern France to search for the assailants and clues about their whereabouts.

“The means employed are considerable,” he said. “We are progressing a lot.”

The attack appeared to have been carefully prepared. The convoy was transporting Amra back to jail in the Normandy town of Évreux after a hearing with an investigator in Rouen when it was ambushed on the A154 freeway.

The prison van and another prison escort vehicle had just gone through a toll booth on the freeway when the van was rammed head-on by a car. The Paris prosecutor’s office said the car had been stolen and had gone through the toll booth a few minutes ahead of the prison convoy and then waited there.

Another car followed behind the convoy, seemingly boxing it in. Assailants sprang from the cars and opened fire, spraying the prison vehicles, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said.

The assailants and Amra then fled. Two burned cars were subsequently found which investigators are examining, Beccuau said.

One of the officers killed was a 52-year-old captain in the prison service, where he had worked for nearly 30 years, and a father of two, Beccuau said. The other officer killed, aged 34, was a married father-to-be, she said.

Amra, 30, has a long criminal record, with at least 13 convictions for robbery and other crimes, the first when he was just 15, she said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has cancelled all his upcoming foreign trips as he looks to concentrate on Russia’s advance in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.

It comes as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced a new $2 billion (£1.6bn) weapons deal during a visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, before suggesting Washington could sign a bilateral agreement with Ukraine in the coming weeks.

Mr Blinken did not go into detail about what would be included in the latest pledge, which will be drawn from the $61bn package passed by Congress last month.

But during a press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, he said the US was focused on sending Patriot missile systems and other forms of critical air defence.

Mr Blinken said that the support for Ukraine comes at a “critical time” as the country faces a renewed Russian onslaught.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president met with senior military personnel, including commander-in-chief Oleksandry Syrskyi, to discuss the difficult situation in the Kharkiv region.

His press secretary Sergii Nykyforov announced on Facebook after the meeting that Mr Zelensky had “instructed that all international events scheduled for the coming days be postponed and new dates coordinated” so that he could focus on Kharkiv.

King Felipe of Spain had been due to hold a reception for Mr Zelensky on 17 May and host a meal in his honour. The Ukrainian President had also been expected  to sign a bilateral security cooperation agreement with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez following a joint declaration by Nato last year. He was later scheduled to visit neighbouring Portugal.

But the situation in Kharkiv has deteriorated quickly as Russian forces appear to have moved within artillery range of the city centre of the region’s namesake capital, where more than 1.3 million civilians are currently living.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during his own meeting with top military generals, as well his new defence minister Andrei Belousov and his predecessor Sergei Shoigu, now the secretary of the security council, said the work of the military was “proceeding according to the plan”.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have captured two more villages in the northernmost of their two attacks across the border into the Kharkiv region.

Kremlin troops have advanced nearly five miles towards the region’s capital since last Friday, when the first units of infantry rushed into the “grey zone”, a portion of land that was previously outside the control of both the Russian and Ukrainian forces.

The recent captures of the towns of Hlyboke and Lukyantsi mean that Putin’s forces have taken eight towns in that sector of fighting and an additional four in the neighbouring attack towards the small city of Vovchansk. According to DeepState, a Ukrainian war tracker, Russia’s forces have occupied a total of more than 50 square miles of land in the Kharkiv region in just six days.

Ukraine’s military, in its latest update, claimed that they had repelled multiple attacks along both sectors of fighting.

After a local Vovchansk police chief said Russian forces had “taken positions in the streets” of the town, Ukraine’s military said they had “expelled [Russian] forces … in the northern and northwestern suburbs”.

Ukrainian tracker DeepState said Russian forces were using artillery to “level everything to the ground” in the two areas of fighting.

Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant has publicly hit out at prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans for a post-war Gaza – vowing to oppose any long-term military rule by Israel.

Pressure has been growing on Mr Netanyahu for weeks over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, with the international community calling for a ceasefire and even staunch ally the US baulking at a full-scale assault on the border city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering. The Israeli prime minister claims the offensive is crucial to eliminating Hamas. Mr Netanyahu’s attempts to keep his hardline government coalition partners onside in promising an attack on Rafah is said to have caused splits in the country’s war cabinet, with these bursting into the open with Mr Gallant’s remarks.

Israel launched its heaviest-ever bombardment of Gaza, plus a ground assault and a blockade, in retaliation for a bloody attack by Hamas on 7 October during which around 1,200 people were killed and another 250 were taken hostage, including toddlers. Since then, Palestinian health workers in the Hamas-run territory say Israel’s bombardment has killed at least 35,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom were women and children.

In a televised news conference, Mr Gallant said that, since soon after the conflict erupted with a shock Hamas attack on 7 October, he had tried to promote a blueprint for an alternative Gaza administration made up of Palestinians. Those efforts “got no response” from various decision-making cabinet forums under Mr Netanyahu, said Mr Gallant, who comes from the prime minister’s Likud Party.

“I call on the prime minister to announce that Israel will not rule over Gaza militarily,” Mr Gallant said. “An alternative to Hamas governance should be established … Indecision will erode the military gains [of the war].” Fellow war cabinet member Benny Gantz voiced support for Mr Gallant, saying he “spoke the truth”.

Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico was left fighting for his life after a shooting described by government officials as an assassination attempt.

The incident took place in Handlova, a small mining town about 120 miles northeast of the capital Bratislava, after a government meeting on Wednesday.

The 59-year-old premier was hit in the stomach during the broad daylight attack, and underwent major surgery.

Speaking late on Wednesday, deputy prime minister Tomas Taraba said the operation “went well” and added: “I guess in the end he will survive … he’s not in a life-threatening situation at this moment.”

After the incident, Fico was bundled into a car by his security team before being taken to hospital for treatment.

A suspect, understood to be a 71-year-old former security guard, has been detained after dramatic images showed a man handcuffed on the ground.

The shooting occurred in front of the local House of Culture, where Mr Fico came to meet with supporters.

A reporter for the daily newspaper Dennik N said they heard shooting and then saw rescuers carrying Mr Fico, an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, to a car.

“I was just going to shake his hand,” said a man who witnessed the shooting. His wife said she “almost became deaf” after hearing three or four shots ring out.

A post on Mr Fico’s Facebook page following the shooting described his condition as life-threatening. A spokesperson for Handlova Hospital, where Mr Fico was first treated, said he was conscious when he arrived and that medics there were able to stabilise his “life functions”. He was later transferred to a higher-level hospital by helicopter.

Pictures later showed Mr Fico – covered by a blanket and surrounded by medics – being wheeled into a hospital in Banska Bystrica, a city about a 45-minute drive from Handlova. Deputy speaker Lubos Blaha adjourned the day’s session of parliament until further notice.

Slovakian president Zuzana Caputova condemned “a brutal and ruthless” attack on the premier.

“I’m shocked,” Ms Caputova said. “I wish Robert Fico a lot of strength in this critical moment and a quick recovery from this attack.”

In a later statement, Ms Caputova said that “a physical attack on the prime minister is primarily an attack on a person, but also on democracy”.

Peter Pellegrini, Slovakia’s president-elect and an ally of Mr Fico, described the attack as “a threat to everything that has adorned Slovak democracy so far”.

“I am horrified by where the hatred towards another political opinion can lead,” he added.

“We don’t have to agree on everything but there are plenty of ways to express our disagreement democratically and legally.”

Leaders across Europe began to condemn the shooting and send their best wishes to Mr Fico and his family.

“I strongly condemn the vile attack on prime minister Robert Fico,” EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on X.

“Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good.

“My thoughts are with PM Fico and his family.”

Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland and former president of the EU Council, said: “Shocking news from Slovakia. Robert, my thoughts are with you in this very difficult moment.”

Rishi Sunak said: “Shocked to hear this awful news. All our thoughts are with prime minister Fico and his family.

Jens Stoltenberg, Nato secretary general, said he was shocked and appalled by the shooting.

“The news about the shooting of Slovak prime minister Robert Fico is shocking,” said Czech prime minister Petr Fiala. “I wish the prime minister to get well as soon as possible. We must not tolerate violence, it must have no place in society.”

Following the shooting, Slovakia’s biggest opposition party called off a planned protest against government public broadcaster reforms set for Wednesday evening.

The Slovak government meeting in Handlova was part of a tour of the country’s regions by Mr Fico after he returned to power last year.

He is in his fourth stint as prime minister after his scandal-tainted leftist Smer, or Direction, party won Slovakia’s parliamentary election at the end of September 2023 on a pro-Russian and anti-American platform. He formed a parliamentary majority by signing a coalition government deal with the leftist Hlas, or Voice, party and the ultranationalist Slovak National Party.

Slovakia, a country of 5.5 million people that shares a border with Ukraine, had been – up to that point – a staunch supporter of Kyiv since Russia invaded in February 2022, donating arms and opening its borders for refugees fleeing the war.

Mr Fico stopped that military aid and opposed EU sanctions on Russia while wanting to block Ukraine from joining Nato. During the election, Mr Fico vowed to pursue a “sovereign” foreign policy, promised a tough stance against migration and non-governmental organisations and campaigned against LGBT+ rights.

Known for his tirades against journalists, Mr Fico has previously labelled a major television network, two nationwide newspapers and an online news site his enemies and said he won’t communicate with them.

In April, Slovakia’s government approved controversial plans for an overhaul of the country’s public radio and TV broadcasting – a move critics said would result in the government taking full control of the media.

During a three-decade career, Mr Fico has moved between the pro-European mainstream and nationalistic positions opposed to European Union and US policies, his latest election win being based around the latter. He has also shown a willingness to change course depending on public opinion or changed political realities.

Mr Fico, the son of a forklift truck driver and shop worker, grew up in Topolcany, a small town in Slovakia’s west, in what was then Czechoslovakia – a satellite state of the Soviet Union.

He attended local primary and secondary schools, then signed up to study law at the respected Comenius University, 100km away in the capital, Bratislava.

In 1986, a 23-year-old Fico joined the Communist Party and in 1988 he married a fellow lawyer.

The shooting comes three weeks ahead of crucial European parliamentary elections, in which populist and hard-right parties in the 27-nation bloc appear poised to make gains.

Slovakia’s major opposition parties, Progressive Slovakia and Freedom and Solidarity, cancelled a planned protest against a controversial government plan to overhaul public broadcasting that they say would give the government full control of public radio and television.

“We absolutely and strongly condemn violence and today’s shooting of premier Robert Fico,” said Progressive Slovakia leader Michal Simecka.

“At the same time, we call on all politicians to refrain from any expressions and steps which could contribute to further increasing the tension.”

Milan Nic, a former adviser to the deputy foreign minister of Slovakia, said that the attack was unfortunately not an “isolated incident”.

He said he was “sorry” to say that he believed the shooting had been “coming” due to the country’s increasingly polarised politics – and threats made against politicians on social media – as he called for calm on all sides.

“I would expect all leaders of the parties in parliament to step up in front of the cameras and call on their supporters to calm down,” he said.

He urged them “to unite in condemnation of this act and to stop with the threats against the lives of politicians, to set back from the brink”.

He added: “We are at the edge of an abyss. This terrible incident – an assassination attempt – should be a wake-up call to step back from that abyss.

“And not only in my country, but I think throughout Europe and the Western world.”

Mr Fico and his Smer party won Slovakia’s 30 September parliamentary elections.

Critics worried Slovakia under Fico would abandon the country’s pro-Western course and follow the direction of Hungary under Mr Orban, who congratulated Mr Putin on his re-election in Russia’s sham presidential election in March.

Thousands have repeatedly rallied in the capital and across Slovakia to protest against his policies.

Abill for an act to establish the Federal Polytechnic in Onueke, Ezza LGA of Ebonyi, scaled second reading in the Senate on Wednesday.

This followed the presentation of the general principles of the bill by the sponsor, Kenneth Eze (APC-Ebonyi), at plenary on Wednesday.

Presenting the bill, Mr Eze said it was read first on August 1, 2023.

He said the school was an initiative that had the potential to advance human capital development and provide an assured future for youths in Nigeria and Ebonyi in particular.

He said that although education remained a cornerstone of any progressive society, there was still more work to be done to address the skill-based educational needs of underserved regions.

He said polytechnics were renowned for providing practical and skill-based education, specialising in technical disciplines, ICT and applied sciences.

“By establishing a Federal Polytechnic in Onueke, Ezza South LGA, Ebonyi State ensures that the youth of this region have access to quality technical education.”

He said the technical education would enable them to acquire the skills needed for technical competence and self-employment in an increasingly competitive labour market.

Contributing, Jimoh Ibrahim (APC-Ondo) urged the federal government to not only establish the school but also see to the establishment of federal polytechnics in all the senatorial districts to drive and ensure science and technology education in Nigeria.

Mr Ibrahim said the number of young people who finished secondary school annually in Nigeria was on the increase, hence the need to establish more polytechnics to prepare them for skill, science and technology-based education.

Victor Umeh (LP-Anambra) also supported the bill and called for efforts to ensure that the school focuses on the delivery of technical education, given the high number of youths in the state in search of technical and science education.

Deputy President of the Senate, Barau Jibrin (APC-Kano), who presided over the plenary, referred the bill to the Senate Committee on Education and Tertiary Institutions for further legislative input to return in two weeks.

The Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) says it has arrested two men who allegedly and illegally rented a government building located within three public schools in Amuwo-Odofin area to the public.

The LAGESC Corps Marshall, Maj. Olaniyi Cole, confirmed the arrest on Wednesday after raiding the two-storey uncompleted building primarily built for persons with disabilities.

Mr Cole noted that the school premises housing the uncompleted building, also has Amuwo Odofin Nursery  and Primary School, Iganmu Senior High School and Unity Nursery and Primary School.

He said that investigation carried out before the raid revealed that there were illegal lodgers in the premises while the schools were in sessions.

The corps marshall said that one of the suspects, who claimed to be employed as a security guard at the building, made them understand that former Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration gave Phycom Nigeria Ltd. the structure to convert to a school.

He said that the company was to provide accommodation and specialised facilities for the teaching of pupils with special needs, stressing that the project was later abandoned after Mr Fashola left office.

“He confirmed to us that he had to rent out some of the rooms to make ends meet because Phycom Nigeria Limited stopped paying him in 2018,” Mr Cole quoted one of the suspects as saying.

Business centres, artisans shops and an Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) shrine around the fence of the schools were destroyed during the operation.

Mr Cole said that the operation would affect all public schools in Lagos State, stressing that Amuwo-Odofin was the seventh public schools they were pulling down illegal structures.

He said the illegal structures posed a security risk to the students of the schools, pointing out that one particular school where such an operation was carried out had a door linked to a hotel.

The agency’s boss said those renting out government properties would be arrested, while those they rented the buildings to would be sent out.

He said one of the reasons the operation was being carried out was for the government to put the structures back to better use, rather than abandon them for criminal elements to occupy.

Some residents of Amuwo-Odofin who spoke with journalists on the sidelines of the demolition, called on Lagos state government to turn the abandoned building to a sports academy.

They noted that, though the building was primarily built for persons with disabilities, turning it into a sports academy would improve the lives of the youths in the area.

Femi Ilusanmi, a community youth leader, said he was one of the students who graduated from the Iganmu High School, Amuwo-Odofin, some 40 years ago. He stressed that many uncompleted buildings owned by the government littered many places in Lagos.

Another resident, Olusegun Sururakat, whose shop was destroyed, said they were not given enough time for them to move their things out before they pulled down their shops.

Ms Sururakat said he had nothing against pulling down illegal structures around public schools, but that, however, the illegal occupants should be given enough time to move out.

The Corps also cleared illegal traders at Mile-2/Badagry Expressway.

Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has tasked the Nigerian government on the need to expand the country’s tax base by exploring innovative ways.

Mr Sanwo-Olu said that although the nation was fostering a business environment that gives room for the economy to thrive, he noted the need to make the tax system transparent and accountable to Nigerians to boost voluntary compliance.

The governor, represented by his aide on taxation and revenue, Abdul-Kabir Opeyemi Ogungbo, spoke at the 26th Annual Tax Conference organized by the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria in Abuja.

“We need to explore innovative ways to expand the tax base while fostering a business environment that allows our economy to thrive,” he said. “The good news is that Nigeria is already taking positive steps in these directions.”

According to him, the recent efforts to streamline state-level taxes and the focus on integrating the growing remote workforce into the tax net by the government are commendable initiatives.

Mr Sanwo-Olu emphasised the necessity for citizens to witness tangible outcomes from their tax contributions, stressing the pivotal role taxes play in fuelling public services and infrastructural development.

The governor noted that building a strong and sustainable future through a robust tax system driving economic growth and development had become inevitable.

He, however, advised taxpayers to view tax payments not as a burden but as an investment in a better future for Nigeria.

“We must all understand the crucial role taxes play in building a better Nigeria for ourselves and for generations to come,” he said.

The theme of the ongoing programme is “Sustainable tax culture and economic road map for nation building.”