N39 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
of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,
officials of his Alpha Beta Consulting, and the Chairman of the Federal
Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Chief Babatunde Fowler, a Tinubu’s
associate, on what to do with the huge revenue base of the FCT.

At issue was the much coveted revenue base of FCT presently put at N500
billion annually. The minister had no counter offer on the pressure
mounted on his administration to abandon the Federal Capital Territory
Board of Internal Revenue Service established by an Act of the National
Assembly in 2015 to generate revenue for FCT and allow the FIRS to do the
job.

FCT generates revenue through property tax, tenement rates, federal
allocation, revenues generated by 52 agencies and the six area councils of
the FCTA and other initiatives.

Tinubu is said to have long coveted FCT revenue and actually made such
demand on former President Goodluck Jonathan as one of the basis for his
support during the 2015 presidential elections. The request was allegedly
turned down by the Jonathan administration prompting the APC leader to
pitch tent with the Buhari team a year later.

An impeccable source at the meeting told Pointblanknews.com that the APC
leader and officials of the FIRS promised the minister and the Permanent
Secretary, Dr Babatunde Ajakaiye, “reasonable percentages” of the total
revenue generated in order to ditch the FCT Board of Internal Revenue
Service and allow the FIRS generate revenue for Abuja.

The former Minister of the FCT, Bala Mohammed, had inaugurated the FCT
Board of Internal Revenue Service before leaving office in 2015. The board
which sat severally was recently dissolved by President Mohammadu Buhari
along with other boards of federal parastatals and is yet to be
reconstituted.

The former minister had charged the board to generate N400 billion revenue
for FCTA in 2015.

The two top shots at FCT were also told to provide private firms to be
branded “consultancy firms” supposedly appointed by the FIRS to help
generate revenue for FCTA as part of the deal.

Recall that before the law backing the FCT Revenue Board was enacted last
year by the National Assembly, a private firm, SW Global, owned by the
former Permanent Secretary of the FCT and the present Nigerian Ambassador
to Namibia, Nathaniel Olorunfemi, was generating revenue for FCT.
The company deducted 10 per cent from revenues generated by FCT agencies
monthly and the proceeds was shared between the company and some top
officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA)
especially the Director of Treasury, Alhaji Ibrahim Bomai, who just
proceeded on pre-retirement leave.

But some FCT agencies had protested that the company in question never
generated any revenue for the agencies but was always on standby to deduct
monthly accruals from the agencies. The deductions continued for three
years until 2015. A former head of the FCT Waterboard, who led the
protest by the agencies was fired by the then Minister of FCT, Bala
Mohammed.

But the strongest argument designed to blackmail the minister and his
permanent secretary into submission by the Tinubu gang was the N39 billion
unremitted revenue by successive administrations of the FCTA which led to
the arrest of the Executive Secretary of the FCDA, Engr. Adamu Ismaila in
2014 by the FIRS.

The FIRS was also complicit in the looting of the FCT treasury as the
federal agency promoted leakages which some of its officials in
collaboration with FCTA officials benefited from until it succumbed to
pressure to move against the looting scheme.

“Beyond the N39 billion issue, the minister was also blackmailed into
agreeing that the FCTA lacked the capacity to generate revenue as it
required 6,000 personnel to be able to meet the revenue generation demands
of the FCTA. The minister admitted that the ministry did not have the
funds to recruit and pay staff.

“But the truth is you don’t need that number to generate revenue for FCT.
There is an existing Board of Internal Revenue backed by the law that
should generate revenue for FCT. FCT operates like a state. Does FIRS
generate revenue for the states? This is impunity”, a dependable source
privy to the development, said.

A group, Abuja Transparency Observatory (ATO), has, however, challenged
the development threatening to take legal steps against what it described
as “process corruption and a breach of the constitution”.

A statement signed by the Chairman of the group, Festus Bafyau, said the
Buhari administration seems to be moving from corruption of moving cash
around to process corruption.

“The FCT operates like a state in the constitution and has its own FCT
Board of Internal Revenue Service. Why should FIRS be generating revenue
for FCT while a functional revenue board backed by the law exists?

“The park and pay policy initiative failed in Abuja because it was not
backed by any law. FCT Board of Internal Revenue exists with the mandate
to generate revenue for FCT. Why FIRS with its fraudulent record of
revenue generation in FCT? Are we now in the era of process corruption as
against the corruption of moving cash around”, he queried, and threatened
that the group would duly take steps to challenge the development in
court.

Tinubu and his group in FIRS are said to have planned a revenue
projection of N1 trillion between 2016 and 2017 and is seen in some
quarters as a way of generating campaign funds for President Buhari’s
expected 2019 bid.

Stale as usual!