Lawmaker Raises Alarm Over Missing N89 Trillion Stamp Duty Proceeds

House of Representatives member, Mr Muhammed Kazaure has raised the alarm of alleged theft of stamp duty proceeds running into N89 trillion.

According to The Guardian report, the Jigawa-born lawmaker in a chat with newsmen in Abuja claimed that he is in possession of valid documents that prove the existence of such funds in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) custody

He alleged that the apex bank has not remitted stamp duty revenue to government coffers as tax insisting that the bank remits only 60 per cent to the government while 40 per cent goes to private pockets.

Reacting to the presidency’s denial of his allegations yesterday, the lawmaker recalled that president Muhamadu Buhari had in June this year set up a presidential committee on the recovery of stamp duty from 2015 to date with him as secretary

According to Kazaure, the president is worried over the unremitted huge sums since he wants to liquidate the nation’s debts before leaving office adding that the money in question would have gone a long way in offsetting the debts

The lawmaker made available documents to substantiate his allegations disclosing that the CBN governor, Godwin Emefeile has kept another N171 billion dollars in the bank’s private investors account, being proceeds of stamp duty

He called for the suspension of the CBN boss to enable the relevant authorities to investigate the matter.