Alleged N89 trillion Stamp Duties scam: The Presidency says Kazaure's claims are crazy and not true. Hon. Gudaji Kazaure , a member ...
Alleged N89 trillion Stamp Duties scam: The Presidency says Kazaure's claims are crazy and not true.
Hon. Gudaji Kazaure, a member of the House of Representatives, said on Friday that administration officials had mismanaged or stolen Stamp Duties funds and tried to hide it. The Presidency said this was just a crazy claim and didn't believe it.
Gudaji Kazaure said that he is also the Secretary of the Presidential Committee on the Reconciliation and Recovery of All Stamp Duties. He said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), and the Protocol Department of the State House all worked together to stop him from telling President Muhammadu Buhari about the findings so far.
In an interview done in Hausa on Friday, the lawmaker said that he was not allowed to meet with President Buhari to give him an update on the search for the missing N89.09 trillion.
But in response to Kazaure's claims, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said late Saturday night that it was ridiculous for a member of the Parliament to claim to be the Secretary of an Executive Committee. He also said that this would be against the constitution.
He also said that President Buhari had since gotten rid of the Committee where Gudaji Kazaure said he was Secretary. However, he said that another Committee, headed by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and set up by the President in June 2020, was still working on balancing Stamp Duties accounts.
"First of all, the committee he talks about that is supposed to have lost stamp duty money is illegal. The President told them to stop meeting, and they did.
"Anyone who knows about our constitution will find it strange that a member of Parliament is the secretary of an Executive Committee. It's enough to say that the entire financial sector of the country, including all of the assets of the banking sector, is not worth N50 trillion, let alone the kind of money he's talking about.
"The Central Bank says that there are no issues at all with money from Stamp Duties.
"The President set up a committee in June 2020. The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice is in charge of it, and the Secretary is in charge of the Federal Internal Revenue Service (FIRS), which is now balancing the stamp duty accounts. "The work is not done." As it stands, there is nothing to back up the wild accusations that have been made against the government.
"Because of all the rumors and accusations, government departments and agencies, like the Ministry of Finance, the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Service, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation, have already done their own investigations. However, they haven't found anything shocking.
"Reconciliation issues are being taken care of," Shehu said.
On the claim that Gudaji Kazaure couldn't meet with the President to tell him about his findings, a Presidential media aide said that it wasn't true because the lawmaker is known to be a friend of the President and has free access to see him whenever he wants to.
"As for Hon. Gudaji Kazaure meeting the President, I want to say that no one can stop him from meeting the most important person in the country. The President knows Hon. Gudaji Kazaure. He can see him as often as he wants, and he is welcome to come back and see him again and again," he said.