Consultants, NIPOST Staff Embezzle N89 Trillion Stamp Duty Funds; Say Presidency

Amid the frenzy that has trailed the purported N89 trillion revenue from stamp duty, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu has alleged that some Consultants collaborated with staff of the Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST to embezzle N89 trillion collected as the country’s stamp duty.

The president aid reaction is to the accusation thrown at him by a member of the House of Representatives, Muhammadu Kazaure, who alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration could not account for the N89 trillion collected as Stamp Duty.

It could be recalled that Kazaure had said that President Muhammadu Buhari constituted a committee, of which he was a secretary, to recover the missing fund.

In an interview with BBC Hausa last Friday, the lawmaker alleged that while serving as the committee’s secretary, the committee discovered that N89.09 trillion had so far been realised from deductions by banks but these had not made it to the FG’s coffers.

Investors King understands that stamp duty is a N50 charge on all bank deposits above N10,000. The federal government had stated that stamp duty which was captured in the finance bill is part of its plan to drive none oil revenue. 

Meanwhile, Kazaure further alleged connivance by some critical operatives of the regime, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and the Protocol Department of the State House, preventing him from briefing the President on the findings.

While responding to the lawmaker’s claim, Shehu said: “This anomaly arose because certain characters formed a cartel with collaborators in the Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST, and were allegedly collecting and pocketing this money”.

He further clarified that the said missing N89 trillion is an imaginary contraption purported by its proponents, stating that if true, it must have been embezzled by the consultants in collaboration with NIPOST officials.