\u2026N39 billion looted revenue used as blackmail<\/p>\n
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Mohammed Bello, was
\nhelpless at a recent, secret meeting between him and the National Leader
\nof the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,
\nofficials of his Alpha Beta Consulting, and the Chairman of the Federal
\nInland Revenue Service (FIRS), Chief Babatunde Fowler, a Tinubu\u2019s
\nassociate, on what to do with the huge revenue base of the FCT.<\/p>\n
At issue was the much coveted revenue base of FCT presently put at N500
\nbillion annually. The minister had no counter offer on the pressure
\nmounted on his administration to abandon the Federal Capital Territory
\nBoard of Internal Revenue Service established by an Act of the National
\nAssembly in 2015 to generate revenue for FCT and allow the FIRS to do the
\njob.<\/p>\n
FCT generates revenue through property tax, tenement rates, federal
\nallocation, revenues generated by 52 agencies and the six area councils of
\nthe FCTA and other initiatives.<\/p>\n
Tinubu is said to have long coveted FCT revenue and actually made such
\ndemand on former President Goodluck Jonathan as one of the basis for his
\nsupport during the 2015 presidential elections. The request was allegedly
\nturned down by the Jonathan administration prompting the APC leader to
\npitch tent with the Buhari team a year later.<\/p>\n
An impeccable source at the meeting told Pointblanknews.com that the APC
\nleader and officials of the FIRS promised the minister and the Permanent
\nSecretary, Dr Babatunde Ajakaiye, \u201creasonable percentages\u201d of the total
\nrevenue generated in order to ditch the FCT Board of Internal Revenue
\nService and allow the FIRS generate revenue for Abuja.<\/p>\n
The former Minister of the FCT, Bala Mohammed, had inaugurated the FCT
\nBoard of Internal Revenue Service before leaving office in 2015. The board
\nwhich sat severally was recently dissolved by President Mohammadu Buhari
\nalong with other boards of federal parastatals and is yet to be
\nreconstituted.<\/p>\n
The former minister had charged the board to generate N400 billion revenue
\nfor FCTA in 2015.<\/p>\n
The two top shots at FCT were also told to provide private firms to be
\nbranded \u201cconsultancy firms\u201d supposedly appointed by the FIRS to help
\ngenerate revenue for FCTA as part of the deal.<\/p>\n
Recall that before the law backing the FCT Revenue Board was enacted last
\nyear by the National Assembly, a private firm, SW Global, owned by the
\nformer Permanent Secretary of the FCT and the present Nigerian Ambassador
\nto Namibia, Nathaniel Olorunfemi, was generating revenue for FCT.
\nThe company deducted 10 per cent from revenues generated by FCT agencies
\nmonthly and the proceeds was shared between the company and some top
\nofficials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA)
\nespecially the Director of Treasury, Alhaji Ibrahim Bomai, who just
\nproceeded on pre-retirement leave.<\/p>\n
But some FCT agencies had protested that the company in question never
\ngenerated any revenue for the agencies but was always on standby to deduct
\nmonthly accruals from the agencies. The deductions continued for three
\nyears until 2015. A former head of the FCT Waterboard, who led the
\nprotest by the agencies was fired by the then Minister of FCT, Bala
\nMohammed.<\/p>\n
But the strongest argument designed to blackmail the minister and his
\npermanent secretary into submission by the Tinubu gang was the N39 billion
\nunremitted revenue by successive administrations of the FCTA which led to
\nthe arrest of the Executive Secretary of the FCDA, Engr. Adamu Ismaila in
\n2014 by the FIRS.<\/p>\n
The FIRS was also complicit in the looting of the FCT treasury as the
\nfederal agency promoted leakages which some of its officials in
\ncollaboration with FCTA officials benefited from until it succumbed to
\npressure to move against the looting scheme.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeyond the N39 billion issue, the minister was also blackmailed into
\nagreeing that the FCTA lacked the capacity to generate revenue as it
\nrequired 6,000 personnel to be able to meet the revenue generation demands
\nof the FCTA. The minister admitted that the ministry did not have the
\nfunds to recruit and pay staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the truth is you don\u2019t need that number to generate revenue for FCT.
\nThere is an existing Board of Internal Revenue backed by the law that
\nshould generate revenue for FCT. FCT operates like a state. Does FIRS
\ngenerate revenue for the states? This is impunity\u201d, a dependable source
\nprivy to the development, said.<\/p>\n
A group, Abuja Transparency Observatory (ATO), has, however, challenged
\nthe development threatening to take legal steps against what it described
\nas \u201cprocess corruption and a breach of the constitution\u201d.<\/p>\n
A statement signed by the Chairman of the group, Festus Bafyau, said the
\nBuhari administration seems to be moving from corruption of moving cash
\naround to process corruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FCT operates like a state in the constitution and has its own FCT
\nBoard of Internal Revenue Service. Why should FIRS be generating revenue
\nfor FCT while a functional revenue board backed by the law exists?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe park and pay policy initiative failed in Abuja because it was not
\nbacked by any law. FCT Board of Internal Revenue exists with the mandate
\nto generate revenue for FCT. Why FIRS with its fraudulent record of
\nrevenue generation in FCT? Are we now in the era of process corruption as
\nagainst the corruption of moving cash around\u201d, he queried, and threatened
\nthat the group would duly take steps to challenge the development in
\ncourt.<\/p>\n
Tinubu and his group in FIRS are said to have planned a revenue
\nprojection of N1 trillion between 2016 and 2017 and is seen in some
\nquarters as a way of generating campaign funds for President Buhari\u2019s
\nexpected 2019 bid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2026N39 billion looted revenue used as blackmail The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Mohammed Bello, was helpless at a recent, secret meeting between him and the National Leader…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n