Stamp duty: Buhari government has already agreed to pay consultants N1.5 trillion to recoup over N20 trillion - Presidency

The presidency has again dismissed allegations of embezzlement of stamp duty funds made against certain government agencies by a member of the House of Representatives, Gudaji Kazaure.

A statement from the President's Senior Special Assistant for Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, on Tuesday said the allegations were "baseless and misleading".

Mr. Shehu on Sunday described the claim as a figment of the imagination of Mr Kazaure, who had previously claimed he was the secretary of a committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to look into stamp duty collection issues. .

In a quick reaction to Mr. Shehu's statement, Mr. Kazaure argued that Mr. Buhari secretly created the committee and that only the president could dissolve it.

In a statement signed Tuesday evening by Mr. Shehu, the presidency explained that Mr. Buhari took office in 2015 to find that a law, which stipulated the collection of a token on banking transactions, existed but was not properly implemented

"This anomaly arose because certain characters apparently formed a cartel with collaborators of the Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST and allegedly collected and pocketed this money.

"Soon after, a non-governmental organization told the administration that the Nigerian government had lost over 20 trillion naira to the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) between 2013 and 2016. in this regard, affirming that the said sum can be recovered and returned to the state coffers.

“The consultants asked to be paid a professional fee of 7.5% and were placed under the supervision of the Secretary of the Federation Government, SGF. Following the lack of progress in the promised turnaround, the late President's Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari wrote on March 8, 2018 to the SGF conveying a presidential directive that following the lack of progress and several expressed concerns received, the consultant's activities are interrupted. »

Following the dismissal, the statement said the consultants sued the government and a competent court subsequently ruled in favor of the government.

"Following the outcome of the dispute and the well-known controversy over the agent legally responsible for collecting this levy, the administration addressed the National Assembly and brought about an amendment to the law and removed NIPOST from the duty of its collection,” the statement read.

"Having lost a 'potentially lucrative' line of business, the sacked figures went back to the drawing board to formulate some form of trick or other to intimidate the government, but vigilant administration teams kept them at bay.< /p>

"Lately they have come back to government through Hon. Muhammadu Gudaji Kazaure with a plan to follow up the so-called lost stamp duties with the former consultant as president and Hon. Gudaji as secretary.

"When it emerged that the petitioner and senior consultant to the committee that the president had dissolved via the late Abba Kyari's March 28 letter had disguised himself and reappeared as the chairman of the new reestablishment committee championed by Hon. Gudaji, the President revoked the approval he had given and requested that he be stopped from operating under the seal of his office."

In addition to the fact that this committee was chaired by a petitioner, the chair asserted that there were also other concerns related to natural justice and due process in having the Chief Justice of the Federation as member of the committee and active member of the House of Representatives as secretary,...