NIPOST: Cartel colluded with Staff to embezzle Stamp Duty- Presidential spokesman

• Explains why Buhari cancelled Gudaji committee’s approval

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, yesterday alleged that a cartel colluded with some staff of the Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST, to embezzle money realized from Stamp Duty.

Mallam Shehu also said that President Muhammadu Buhari has the constitutional power to hire or fire anybody.

The presidential spokesman stated this in his reaction via a statement to the challenge thrown at him by a member of the House of Representatives, Muhammadu Gudaji Kazaure, who alleged that N89 trillion collected as Stamp Duty has gone missing.

Recall that Kazaure had said that President Muhammadu Buhari constituted a committee with him as secretary to recover the missing fund.

But responding to the lawmaker’s claim, Shehu noted that Buhari disbanded the committee because of lack of progress in its assignment.

Shehu explained that on assumption of office in 2015, the President had noticed an anomaly in the law which mandates the collection of a token on banking transactions and attempted to rectify it.

He pointed out that the cartel that had been prevented from stealing the collection came back in the form of consultants to recover the Stamp Duty.

In his words: “This anomaly arose because certain characters apparently formed a cartel with collaborators in the Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST and were allegedly collecting and pocketing this money.

“Soon after, a non-government organization posited to the administration that the Nigerian government had lost the sum of over N20 trillion to the Nigerian Inter-bank Settlement System ((NIBSS) between 2013-2016 in this regard, claiming that the said sum could be recovered and paid back into the government coffers.

“The consultants asked to be paid a professional fee of 7.5 percent and were placed under the supervision of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF.

“Following the lack of progress in the promised recovery, the late Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari wrote on March 8, 2018 to the SGF conveying a presidential directive that following the lack of progress and several expressed concerns received, the activities of the consultants be discontinued.

“In the aftermath of this dismissal, the consultants sued the government.