Kogi State Internal Revenue Services (KGIRS) on Monday debunked online media reports that the organization has diverted N3 billion meant to be remitted to the coffer of the state government, describing the allegation as baseless, malicious and politically motivated.
The Head of Administration and Human Resources of the Service, Mrs Azanat Salihu, who spoke on behalf of the organisation said the monthly IGR of the state has never exceeded N1billion and wondered how the agency’s head or anybody could have diverted N3billion as being alleged.
She said the allegation was politically-motivated and aimed at distracting and tarnishing the image of the agency’s chairman, Yakubu Oseni, who had just indicated interest to contest the Kogi Central senatorial election in 2019.
“Our task in this organization is just to collect and collate the revenues of the state via the banks. We operate cashless policy. The chairman of the agency accused to have issued directive for the said cash diversion is not even signatory to the accounts.
“Money paid into these accounts are channelled through e-transact before hitting the state government account. Only the state government are signatory to the accounts.
“What accrued to this organization is just 10 percent commission of what we are able to collect each month. And this is used to pay the staff salaries and handle other overhead costs.
“This organization is a noble one and the chairman is transparent to the core. The government has not declared that N3 billion is missing let alone looking for it. We wondered how and where people now get the fake story from”, she said.
Mrs Salihu who also denied that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC is investigating the organisation over the alleged “missing money”, said the news is fake and disturbing.
