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2 years agoon
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NewsWireNGRA presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, has dismissed allegations of misappropriation of over N89.1 trillion in stamp duty funds by a member of the House of Representatives, Muhammad Gudaji-Kazaure.
Mr Shehu, in a statement, described the claim as unfounded and a figment of the imagination of Mr Gudaji-Kazaure.
The lawmaker, who is also the secretary of the presidential committee on the recoveries and reconciliation of stamp duties, had during a press conference on Friday, accused the CBN governor, Godwin Emeifele, “in connivance with some presidency cabals,” of frustrating the committee’s effort to recover the unremitted stamp duty revenue to the federal government.
He also accused them of preventing him from seeing the president to submit the progress report of the committee.
Reacting to the allegations, Mr Shehu argued that the committee of which Mr Kazaure claimed to be secretary had since been dissolved, noting, however, that another committee was set up in 2020 for the same purpose.
He said the committee is headed by the attorney general of the federation and minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, and the FIRS chairman, Mohamed Nami, as secretary.
“Anyone familiar with our constitution will find it curious that a member of the Parliament is the secretary of an Executive Committee.
“It suffices to say that the entire net worth of the nation’s financial sector, the assets of the banking sector put together, is not worth N50 trillion, not to talk of the kind of money he is talking about.
“The Central Bank assures that there is absolutely no problem, whatsoever, with money from stamp duties. There is a committee duly set up by the President in June 2020, chaired by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, and the Secretary is the Chairman of the Federal Internal Revenue Service, which is currently reconciling the stamp duty accounts.
“The job is not finished. As it is, there is nothing to give credence to wild accusations made against the administration,” the statement said.
On the allegations by the lawmaker that he was prevented from seeing the president, Mr Shehu said such allegations can’t be true, saying Mr Kazaure is a known friend of the president.
He said: “As for Hon. Gudaji seeing the President, I’ll like to assure you that there is nobody that can stop him from seeing the number one citizen. Gudaji is a friend of the president”.