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Presidency defends Emefiele on alleged N89.1tr stamp duty collection
The presidency on Sunday dismissed as outright falsehood a claim that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, could not account for N89.1 trillion the apex bank collected as stamp duty.
A member of the House of Representatives from Kazaure, Roni, Gwiwa, and Yankwashi Constituency of Jigawa State, Gudaji Kazaure, had in a viral video accused the CBN governor of attempting to cover up facts on the funds in question.
The lawmaker also alleged that he was being stopped from presenting a preliminary report of a committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to look into the stamp duty funds allegedly withheld by the CBN.
He urged the president to allow him to present his report or order a thorough investigation of the allegation against the apex bank.
However, in a statement issued on Sunday, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the president, Garba Shehu, described the Kazaure’s committee as illegal, saying the committee was dissolved on the directive of Buhari.
READ ALSO: Senate ends stamp duty controversy after stripping NIPOST of tax collection rights
The statement read: “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 the 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 net worth of the nation’s financial sector and the assets of the banking sector put together are not worth N50 trillion, not to talk of the kind of money he is talking about.
”CBN assures that there is absolutely no problem, whatsoever, with money from Stamp Duties.
”There is a committee duly set up by the president in June 2020 chaired by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and the Secretary is the Chairman of the Federal Internal Revenue Service (FIRS) that is currently reconciling the stamp duty accounts.”
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