Following the controversies trailing a claim of a missing sum of N89.09 trillion allegedly lost from siphoned stamp duty charges, the Presidency on Tuesday said such is false.

It also said the entire banking sector deposit in Nigeria does not amount to half of N89tn.

“It is now evident that the consultants and petitioners’ claim of a missing N89tn from stamp duty appears false and a figment of their malicious imaginations. The same set of consultants claimed in 2016 there was N20tn to be collected. It was found to be false. The entire banking sector deposit is not even up to half of N89 trillion.

“Indeed, if the Federal Government can find N89tn Naira, it can pay off all its debt, both foreign and local currency and all state government debts and still have over N10tn left,” a statement signed on Tuesday evening by the President’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, read.

The statement is titled, “Stamp duty: facts Nigerians need to have.”

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In an interview with BBC Hausa last Friday, the lawmaker representing the Kazaure, Roni, Gwiwa, Yankwashi Constituency of Jigawa State at the lower chambers alleged that the Presidential Committee on the Reconciliation and Recovery of All Stamp Duties has accused some government agencies of sabotaging the committee’s efforts.

According to Kazaure, who said he serves as the committee’s secretary, it was discovered that N89.09tn has so far been realised from deductions by banks but these funds have not made it to the FG’s coffers.

He alleged connivance by some critical operatives of the regime, including the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Protocol Department of the State House, preventing him from briefing President Muhammadu Buhari on the findings.

But reacting to the claims on Tuesday, the Presidency said while there was a committee empowered by the President to look recover a sum of N20tn allegedly lost to the Nigerian Inter-bank Settlement System, the President rescinded his approval upon realising the actual plan of said committee.

It explained that this “anomaly” arose because certain characters apparently formed a cartel with collaborators in the Nigerian Postal Service and were allegedly collecting and pocketing tokens on banking transactions.

Soon after, a non-government organisation posited to the regime that the Nigerian government had lost the sum of over N20tn to the Nigerian Inter-bank Settlement System between 2013-2016 in this regard, claiming that the said sum could be recovered and paid back into the government coffers.

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“The consultants asked to be paid a professional fee of 7.5 per cent and were placed under the supervision of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

“Following the lack of progress in the promised recovery, the late Chief of Staff to the President, 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 activities of the consultants be discontinued.

“In the aftermath of this dismissal, the consultants sued the government. A court of competent jurisdiction subsequently ruled in favour of the government,” the Presidency noted in the statement.

It said arising from the outcome of the litigation and the controversy on the legally responsible agent for collecting this levy, the regime caused an amendment to the law and removed NIPOST from the duty of its collection.

Having lost a potentially “lucrative” line of “business”, Shehu claimed that the sacked characters returned to the drawing board to formulate one form of trick or another to intimidate the government but the vigilant teams of the administration kept them at bay.

“Lately, they returned to the government through Hon. Muhammadu Kazaure with a plan to track the so-called lost stamp duties with the erstwhile consultant as chairman and Gudaji as secretary.

“When it emerged that the petitioner and lead consultant of the committee the President had dissolved via the late Abba Kyari’s letter of March 28 had masqueraded himself and re-emerged as the chairman of the new recovery committee championed by Gudaji, the President rescinded the approval he gave and asked that it be stopped from operating under the seal of his office,” Shehu further explained.

Buhari’s decision, he said, was premised on concerns relating to natural justice and fair hearing in having the Chief Justice of the Federation as a committee member and a serving member of the House of Representatives as Secretary, which are not in line with Section 5(1),(a)&(b) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

The Presidency proceeded to answer questions raised by Kazaure in the BBC Hausa interview.

On the CBN’s Investors and Exporters window, which Kazaure claimed stood at $171 billion dollars as of 2020, it said “Contrary to Kazaure’s assertion, the I&E window is NOT an ‘account’ where foreign exchange is deposited. It is simply a platform for trading foreign exchange.

“As of April 2020, the total amount of foreign exchange traded (either bought or sold) in the window was about $171bn. The amount does not mean that we have $171bn stacked away in some vault or saved in any account.”

On accusations of the CBN loaning N23.4tn to some banks, Shehu said “the total balance sheet of the CBN is not anywhere near N23tn. So how can it give such an amount in loans to any or some banks?”

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Responding to claims about a N13trillion loan to the federal government from the Financial Markets Derivative Quotes he said according to the Debt Management Office, the total amount of Nigeria’s domestic debt as of September 2022 is N21.6tn.

“Is Kazaure suggesting that a small company in Lagos holds over 60 per cent of Nigeria’s domestic debt? Of the N21.6tn domestic debt, only N4.5tn are in Treasury Bills. How then can a company in Lagos hold more treasury bills (N13tn) than the entire treasury bills issued by the Federal Government?” Shehu queried.

According to him, the President has not ignored these matters and a duly authorised committee under the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami is “working to reconcile, recover and transfer all Stamp Duties into Stamp Duties Central Account. The work is ongoing, it is not finished yet and the President will continue to show his keen interest in the matter of Stamp Duty collection.”
PUNCH