CENTUS NWEZE Reporting
The last may not have been heard over alleged N89 trillion stamp duty remitted into the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, after Rt Hon. Sunday Arieyerni Adepoju, Postmaster General, PG, and CEO, Nigeria Postal Service, NIPOST, said it was aware of the said money remittances but debunked claims that a cartel collected and pocketed the said money.
The NIPOST boss also insisted that no such monies as mentioned in the media came into NIPOST’s account.
The matter began when a member of the House of Representatives representing the Kazaure, Roni, Gwiwa, Yankwashi Constituency of Jigawa State, Muhammed Gudaji Kazaure, said in an interview that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and some other agencies were making efforts to frustrate investigations done to recover the alleged N89 trillion stamp revenue.
But explaining the matter as it concerns NIPOST, Hon Adepoju said on Sunday that the figure being bandied wasn’t what it was aware of as the time it had the statement of account.
NIPOST is not in charge of the account because the postal agency had no opportunity, privilege, or access to the account because it was opened by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in the name of NIPOST.
“The stamp duty account was opened by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in consultation with the office of the Accountant General of the Federation in the name of NIPOST Stamp Duties Collection Account.
“This is an account to which NIPOST had no opportunity, privilege, or access.
It was NIPOST’s in name only.
“All deductions of stamp duties for and on behalf of NIPOST were carried out by the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) at source and directly remitted to the said dedicated NIPOST Stamp Duties Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria and the total aggregated collection stood at Fifty- Nine billion, Three Hundred Million naira (N59.3billion) only as at May 2020, when it was moved to the Federation Account following the controversy with Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as to which agency, of Government, has the right to collect stamp duty.
“For the record, NIPOST is not aware of any cartel allegedly collecting and pocketing money belonging to the Government on stamp duty and no such monies as mentioned came into NIPOST’s account,” the statement emphasised.