Resign if you can’t perform, Reps tell FIRS boss

The Public Account Committee (PAC) of the House of Representatives has called on executive chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Alhaji Muhammad Nami, to tender his resignation if he is not capable of discharging his official responsibilities.

The committee has also given him 18 hours within which to appear before it or face sanction.

Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke, gave the directive Wednesday, while ruling on the failure of the FIRS boss to honour the invitation of the parliament currently probing the huge dwindling revenues of the federal government as reported by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.

At the resumption of the committee sitting, the FIRS boss was expected to appear before the committee on non payment of taxes to the government by three foreign firms, Indorama Petrochemical, Indorama fertilizer and Petrochemical Ltd and OIS Indorama Eleme Port-Harcourt, but was absent.

Two of the firms reportedly enjoyed duty waivers and capital allowances while the third one was said to be operating at the Export Free Zone in Port-Harcourt, Rivers state, thus causing huge loss of revenues to the nation.

Following this development, deputy chairman of the committee, Hon. Abdullahi Sa’ad Abdulkadir, decried the absence of the FIRS boss at such an important hearing which would have assisted the parliament in unmasking the sources of the leakages of government revenues and blocked them.

Members of the panel unanimously endorsed the motion and gave him 10.00 am Thursday to appear in person, failing which he would be sanctioned in line with the law of the land.

“This parliament is the symbol of democracy, we are the representatives of the people. If President Muhamodu Buihari can of course appear before the parliament whenever the need arises, why not his appointees? Enough is enough, if the FIRS boss cannot perform his constitutional responsibilities again, he should turn in his letter of resignation immediately,” Oke said.