The former chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Services, Mohammed Nami has responded after The Cable reported on Wednesday that he approved 11bn after his exit as the head of the agency.
In a statement he released on social media stated that “The entire story was sensationally written with mischief that took the ordinary events of my work out of context with the intent to tarnish my image”
Nami in his statement denied making any payments after his leave from office and added the payments made were authorised by his successor, “First and foremost, I want to categorically state that after my exit as FIRS Executive Chairman, I made no such approvals as claimed in the report.
Fundamentally: It is important to note that no payment was made by the Service after the announcement of my pre-retirement leave as claimed by this story. Approval for payment in the Service is one step of the journey to payment. It is the custom that when a new Executive Chairman resumes office, he would review, validate and make final authorisation before any payments can be made.”
Nami also clarified the payments he made during his tenure, which he stated were contained in the handover notes to his successor, Zacch Adedeji, “It is important to note for the record that all decisions reached and extant liabilities/ commitments of the Service during my stay in office are contained in the handover notes I made available to my successor, Mr. Zacch Adedeji. He is fully briefed on everything. For clarity the items listed in the Cable Newspaper Report were part of the N16 billion outstanding commitments contained in our handover note,”
The Cable in its report stated that the former FIRS chairman approved N5,628,496,823.04 for express payment to 196 beneficiaries, $863,293 and £8,780 all in one day.
In November 2023, Nami approved the payment of N1,409,950,625.00 to 807 nominees for a retreat titled “Business Case for Strategic Leadership,” and N250,325,000 was allowed for the FIRS Data Mining Management and Analytics in Taxation Course.
The ex-FIRS chairman also authorised the payment of N221,311,840.00 to Odey Jacob and 611 other individuals for “Skill Development and Management Improvement Workshop Training,” N42,398,000.00 to Mawo Dav Printing Nig. Ltd. for the “production of letterhead papers & call cards,” and N36,513,718.75 to Gebos Nig. Ltd. for the same purpose. The report also highlighted other payments he made which all amounted to N11billion
The ex-FIRS chairman denied the report and concluded his statement which was posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he met the FIRS treasury at N1.4bn and raised it to N129 billion before he left.
