Timi Frank, former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Tuesday charged the \u201cFederal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, to bury their faces in their hands in shame over their gross act of corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frank stated this in response to the denial by FIRS that they handed over N90bn to Osinbajo during the last elections.<\/p>\n
The political analyst had raised an alarm that Osinbajo\u2019s ongoing travails was allegedly due to corruption and has nothing to do with 2023 politics.<\/p>\n
He had claimed that he has reliable information from his sources in the presidency to the effect that Osinbajo\u2019s travail has nothing to do with 2023 but alleged mismanagement of about N90 billion Naira released by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to prosecute the last general elections in favour of the APC.<\/p>\n
But, the FIRS has said it did not make N90 billion available to Vice-President for election campaign.<\/p>\n
It accused Frank of seeking cheap popularity while threatening that it would file a libel suit if he refuses to tender an apology in three major newspapers within the next 24 hours.<\/p>\n
However, Frank has insisted that he cannot be intimidated by the agency\u2019s threat to sue him.<\/p>\n
In a statement he signed and sent to DAILY POST, the former APC Deputy spokesperson described the tax agency\u2019s \u201crantings as a puerile attempt to sweep the main issues in his public statement under the carpet.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said FIRS thinks they can continue to deceive Nigerians by claiming unfounded budgetary fidelity.<\/p>\n
Frank said: \u201cI read the statement by the Federal Inland Revenue Service and I am rather disappointed at their intellectual laziness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is the FIRS trying to fool by claiming that their annual subvention is not up to a N100 billion? That is an unintelligent attempt to fool the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FIRS, like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Central Bank of Nigeria and the Securities and Exchange Commission are revenue generating agencies of the Federal Government that do not depend on budgetary subventions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese agencies are able to appropriate huge funds from the monies they generate for their use.\u201d<\/p>\n
He urged the agency to come clean and tell Nigerians the reason for the discrepancies which exist in their records of tax collection.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, on January 7, 2019, the Federal Inland Revenue Service announced that it had broken Nigeria\u2019s all-time revenue generation record, by generating N5.3trillion in 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, on 18th August, 2019, the FIRS\u2019 boss was queried for poor performance and under remittances to the Federation Account by the Chief of Staff to General Muhammadu Buhari, Mr. Abba Kyari.<\/p>\n
\u201cKyari\u2019s letter to the FIRS\u2019s Boss, Tunde Fowler, was to the intent that the reported \u2018record breaking\u2019 revenue the agency claimed to have generated was in reality not up to the revenues generated in the previous Peoples Democratic Party-led administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe query, which was widely published in all newspapers and online media channels, was as a result of the N90billion that the FIRS illegally funneled to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo for the 2019 elections which led to the shortfall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FIRS should bury their head in the mud and apologise to Nigerians for aiding and abetting corruption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Bayelsa-born activist called on the anti-corruption agencies to arrest and prosecute the leadership of the Service for aiding and abetting corruption.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe big question is: what is responsible for the discrepancy? These are questions that the FIRS should be explaining to Nigerians rather than trying to be clever by half in claiming that they do not get up to N100 billion per annum, when in fact they expend 50 times that amount.<\/p>\n
\u201cI therefore call for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the leadership of the FIRS for fraud and money laundering.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stand by my statement and am not going to tender any apology to FiRS. They are the ones to apologize to Nigerians for illegally spending taxpayers\u2019 money on elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot be intimidated by threats. I am prepared to meet them in court. Why are they crying more than the bereaved if they have nothing to hide?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did they decide to respond on behalf of the Vice President, who is the main issue here? Is the FIRS now Osinbajo\u2019s mouthpiece?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Timi Frank, former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Tuesday charged the \u201cFederal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, to bury their faces in their hands in shame over their gross act of corruption.\u201d Frank stated this in response to the denial by FIRS that they handed over N90bn to Osinbajo during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":10072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,16],"tags":[34,849,333],"class_list":["post-15869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-parties","tag-apc","tag-osinbajo","tag-timi-frank"],"yoast_head":"\n