FIRS Denies Giving Osinbajo N90bn For The 2019 Elections

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has denied allegations that it financed APC's campaign in the 2019 election through Vice President Yemi Osinbajo with N90bn.

Timi Frank, a former deputy spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC), made the allegation recently. Timi claimed that the Vice President started having issues when the presidency discovered that he mismanaged N90 billion allegedly made available by the FIRS for 2019 election campaign purposes.

Reacting to the allegation, FIRS in a statement released by Wahab Gbadamosi, its director of information, dismissed the claim, saying the service’s annual allocation is not even up to the said amount. 

The statement in part reads

“The entire allegation being spread by one Frank Timi  that the Federal lnland Revenue Service spent N90 billion to fund the last election is mendacious, wicked, malicious and a calculated attempt to smear the image of the Service and that of his Excellency, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo,” the statement read. 

“In the last four years since Mr Tunde Fowler has supervised operations at the FIRS, the agency had not received up to N90 billion, per annum, as Cost of Collection from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC. Mr. Frank and his band of liars might wish to cross-check this from FAAC, a public institution, whose records are open to the public.

“It is from the remittances from FAAC—which had never grossed up to N100 billion, PER ANNUM, that FIRS pays the salary and emoluments and trains it’s over 8,000 staff, runs over 150 offices and provides for other needs of the Service.

“Given the above, IT IS NOT PLAUSIBLE nor DOES IT MAKE ANY SENSE that FIRS will commit its resources to a phantom campaign of N90 billion as suggested by Mr Timi Frank and FIRS does not fund political associations. The agency is subject to the eagle eye scrutiny, supervision and close monitoring by the National Assembly, the Federation  Account Allocation Committee and the Ministry of Finance through the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, OAGF'' . 

FIRS accused Frank as seeking cheap popularity. The agency vowed to institute legal proceedings against Frank if he fails to tender an apology in three major newspapers within the next 24 hours.