Fresh controversies surround the recovery of about N89 trillion stamp duty funds said to be in various accounts, with a view to bringing them into a central government account.
The whole issue began when a member of the House of Representatives representing the Kazaure, Roni, Gwiwa, Yankwashi Constituency of Jigawa State, Muhammed Gudaji Kazaure, said in an interview that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and some other agencies were making efforts to frustrate investigations done to recover the alleged N89 trillion stamp revenue.
He had said the Presidential Committee on Reconciliation and Recovery of Stamp Duty was formed when he approached President Muhammadu Buhari with a research conducted in 2013 by the School of Banking Honours on Stamp Duties.
Kazaure, who is the Secretary of the said committee, added that the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) wrote a letter to the committee to stop its activities while the FIRS wrote another letter claiming that it was the only body recognised by law to deal with revenues, taxes and levies issues.
But in an interview with Daily Trust, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, said the committee was dissolved on the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Daily Trust checks indicated that, Kazaure had, in a letter dated 2nd September 2022, conveyed the appointment of Adetola Adekoya as Chairman of the committee by President Muhammadu Buhari with the mandate to reconcile and recover all unremitted stamp duty from various accounts in the banking sector into a single stamp duty central account from 2013 to date.
According to a memo approved by the President and sighted by Daily Trust, this was to enable the approved sole collector of stamp duties, Messrs. School of Banking Honours, to recover all money collected by banks into a central account.
The committee’s terms of reference was to investigate all stamp duties recovered from banks, into many accounts; transferring all stamp duties into Stamp Duties Central Account.
“Exercising the power of detention on any person, or group of persons, that violate the Presidential Directives on this assignment,” the memo reads in part.
The committee has, among others, the secretary (Kazaure), finance and budget planning minister and the justice minister as members.
However, in another letter dated September 29, 2022, seen by Daily Trust yesterday, Adekoya resigned his appointment; just 27 days after his appointment to head the committee.
Adekoya said he resigned “To allow an independent investigation into all cases of unremitted stamp duty due to the federal government and all the constitutional beneficiaries from 2013 to date.”
Also yesterday, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation and committee member, Abubakar Malami, through a statement by Umar Gwandu, his spokesman, said he had never been a beneficiary of any percentage out of any recovery made.
Malami said, “The Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice was never in agreement on 20 per cent for a recovery agent ever since the assumption of office under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“As to the idea of reduction over non-existent positions, from 20 per cent to 7.5 per cent is factually incorrect and does not therefore arise. Again, the figure has never been 7.5 per cent. The present administration since commencement pegged it at five per cent in 2015 and has remained consistent ever since.”
In another twist, the Presidency in a statement, dismissed the allegation of missing N89.09 trillion stamp duty, describing the committee as illegal. Garba Shehu, while responding to some allegations made by the committee’s secretary, said: “In response to press enquiries on the issues raised in a viral video by Hon. Gudaji Kazaure, I wish to state as follows: In the first instance, the committee on the alleged loss of stamp duty funds he is talking about is an illegal committee, it was dissolved on directive of the President.
“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 networth 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.”
However, Kazaure, the committee’s secretary, dismissed the claims by the presidential spokesperson on the dissolution of the committee.
Kazaure insisted the committee is legitimate and cut across all arms of government.
The lawmaker also posed some questions for Garba Shehu to answer since he questioned the figures the committee gave in its monthly report to be presented to the president earlier:
He said, “The money with CBN I & E window Account stood at $171 billion dollars as at 2020 what is the source of that money? The N23.4 trillion Naira CBN gave as loan to some banks, what is the source of that money? The N13 trillion loan to the federal government from FMDQ, what is the source of that and finally what is the total equity of CBN and its National budget?”.
The lawmaker alleged that he was blocked by some powers from seeing the president and submitted the one-month report to the president regarding the discovery of over N89 trillion Stamp Duty in three accounts domiciled in CBN.
Effort to get through to CBN on the issue was not successful as officials were not available for comments at the weekend.
By Faruk Shuaibu, John C. Azu & Balarabe Alkassim
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