The Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) has dismissed claims that it supported the All Progressives Congress (APC) political campaign with either the sum of N90 billion or N40billion.
Also, the ruling APC said it never at any time, took money from the FIRS to run the 2019 campaign of its presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.
But the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is insisting on the veracity of the claim, and asked the ruling APC to come clean on the allegation.
A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Timi Frank, had accused the FIRS of supporting the APC campaigns with the sum of N40billion and N90billion at different periods through Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.
FIRS
But debunking the claims in a statement Monday, the FIRS described Frank’s allegation as “wicked, malicious and a calculated attempt” to smear its image and that of Vice President Osinbajo.
The agency, in a statement by the Head, Communications and Servicom Department, Mr. Wahab Gbadamosi, insisted Frank’s allegation was a campaign of “calumny, vilifying, libellous, unfounded in fact, irresponsible and a brazen assault on the integrity of the Service.”
“First it was N90billion, but now N40billion. Which is which? It took a disgruntled politician to convey the fake news of N90billion, now it is the services of an unquestioning PR newswire that is passing on the unsupported, baseless N40billion bogus allegation. Whichever way, whoever is behind this, a lie is a lie,” the statement said.
He said, under Mr. Tunde Fowler’s watch in the last four years, the agency had not received up to N100 billion per annum as cost of collection from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, saying FAAC is a public institution, whose records are open to the public.
“That it is from the remittances from FAAC—which had never grossed up to N100 billion, PER ANNUM, that FIRS pays the salary and emoluments and trains it’s over 8000 staff, runs over 150 offices and provides for other needs of the Service.”
FIRS further said it couldn’t commit all its resources to a phantom campaign of N90 billion as suggested by Mr. Timi Frank given that it barely had enough for its operations.
“That FIRS is a creation of statute and its activities are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and financial regulations and thus, IT IS NOT PLAUSIBLE, that its funds could be expended in such a cavalier manner as suggested by Mr. Timi Frank.
“That FIRS Budget and expenditure approval processes pass through the Budget Office and the Ministry of Finance before such is presented to the National Assembly for Appropriation into Law. The National Assembly committees, consisting of all parties and inclinations exercise oversight function on all agencies of the Federal Government to ensure agencies keep to the letters of the Appropriation Act. Thus FIRS’s operations are subjected to Scrutiny and close monitoring by the National Assembly, the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee and the Ministry of Finance.
“It is therefore unthinkable, malicious and irresponsible for the said Frank to insinuate or infer that N90 billion or any part thereof could be spent illegally and without budgetary approval,” the statement further said.
Allegation hogwash –APC
Also in a reaction, the APC described the allegation as ‘hogwash.’
In a statement by its spokesman, Lanre Issa-Onilu in Abuja Monday, the party while reacting to the allegation, challenged the sponsors of the media report to resolve what it called confusion.
“The baseless allegations contained in the media reports and the subsequent statement by the PDP is an unintelligent and crude attempt at a smear campaign. Only the sponsors of the report believe their tales.
“We call on the sponsors of the baseless allegation to resolve their confusion. Last time, it was N90 billion, now it is N40billion. We also challenge them to provide evidence from not only FIRS but any other government agency where the APC took one kobo for campaign.
“The matter of dipping hands into public coffers as a matter of official policy ended with PDP. We recall that leaders of the PDP had contemplated changing the name of their party at a time because they were ashamed of their own record of sleaze.
“We however refer the PDP and co-peddlers of falsehood to the records of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) in terms of Cost of Collection accruing to FIRS and indeed the FIRS statement on the subject matter.”
Come clean on this, PDP insists
But the PDP insisted on the authenticity of the allegation, saying the report has further exposed the “APC as a decadent lot, a gathering of treasury looters” thriving in cheating, deceit and pretences at very high levels.
In a statement Monday in Abuja by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said the development had vindicated the PDP’s stand that the “APC is an extremely callous and hypocritical party, which has no iota of conscience”
It further claimed that the APC “takes delight in depriving Nigerians and “pillaging resources meant for the wellbeing of our people.”
The statement reads: “It is shameful that instead of being remorseful, agents of the APC are reportedly engaging in dirty infighting over how the money was “shared”, with certain top leaders of the APC allegedly getting up to N3 billion each.”
The PDP asked APC not to take Nigerians for a ride with its usual diversionary empty denials, finger-pointing, hauling of insults and spurious accusations against it.
The opposition party stated that the public already had reports of how very “top leaders of the APC, including those operating at the Presidency, were used to conduit the money from the FIRS.”
“In a nation battling the scourge of corruption, misrule, huge unemployment, unprecedented infrastructural decay, insecurity, hunger and untold hardship, such a humongous allegation must not be allowed to go under the usual APC carpet.
“Our party submits that since the APC has been overtly indicted, it should come clean by refunding the N40 billion to the public coffers from where it should be channelled to job creation projects without further delay.
“We invite Nigerians to note how the APC and its federal government have failed to account for various pillaging of public funds under the Buhari administration, including the N14 trillion stolen through various phony contracts in the NNPC as well as direct drawings from other government agencies such as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA),” the party said.
The erstwhile ruling party also said, “if the trillions of naira stolen and stashed away in private purses of APC leaders are recovered and directed to development projects, our nation will not be in its present sorry state under the Buhari administration.”
