The presidency has yesterday disclosed that the committee constituted by the president under the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN office is still working to reconcile, recover and transfer the stamp duty money under controversy. The Senior Special Assistant to President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu disclosed this through a statement titled “Stamp Duty: Facts Nigerians Need to Know”.
There was a controversy going around in the media since last Friday by Honourable Gudaji Kazaure of a purported trapped N89 trillion discovered by a committee constituted by President Buhari, and being the secretary of the committee, he has been denied access to president Buhari with the progress report.
Shehu, had earlier on Saturday rubbished the accusation as it has no credence, saying, Hon. Kazaure was been economical with the truth in his allegation of blocking his access to President Buhari.
The Presidential spokesperson insisted that Malami committee work “is still ongoing” and revealed that the president will continue to give keen interest in the matter of stamp duty collection.
In his statement which partly reads, “In a video clip in Hausa and a press release in English both by this good friend of the administration, Hon. Gudaji Kazaure invited me to answer questions, some of which are completely lacking in imagination.
“I would have ignored the allegations therein. Yet, a wise man once said that a lie can travel the world while the truth is still wearing his shoes. It is on the basis of the above that I decided to put some things straight and respond directly to Hon. Kazaure’s questions posed to me.
Garba Shehu explained, “Specifically, I will respond to each of his questions as follows:
“(A) “The money with CBN I & E window Account stood at $171 billion dollars as of 2020 what is the source of that money? To my knowledge, the CBN-established Investors and Exporters (I&E) Window is a foreign exchange trading platform where banks and other authorized dealers can buy or sell foreign exchange. These trades are recorded by the CBN daily and reported as turnover or activity in the market.
“Contrary to Hon. Kazaure’s assertion, the I&E window is NOT an “account” where foreign exchange is deposited. It is simply a platform for trading foreign exchange. As of April 2020, the total amount of foreign exchange traded (either bought or sold) in the window was about $171 billion. The size of this amount suggests that there is adequate liquidity or availability of foreign exchange and that anyone who wants to buy or sell would easily find a counterparty to trade with. The amount does not mean that we have $171 billion stacked away in some vault or saved in any account.”
