Timi Frank, political activist and former Deputy Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has dared the Federal Island Revenue Service (FIRS) to go to court, telling it to bury its face in shame over alleged corruption being perpetrated there. The activist had on Monday linked the agency with a N90 billion election fund it allegedly advanced to the ruling APC for the prosecution of the 2019 general elections. He also claimed that the ongoing attack against Vice President Yemi Osinbajo by unnamed Presidency cabal was due to his failure to give proper account on how the alleged sum was disbursed. But the FIRS, in a statement, denied any such transaction as it was against the law, and demanded an unreserved apology from Frank within 24 hours or risk legal action. But Frank, in his reaction, rubbished the threat as mere intimidation and vowed to meet the Service in court. He described the agency’s ranting as a puerile attempt to sweep the main issues in his public statement under the carpet. He said that the FIRS thinks it can continue to deceive Nigerians by claiming unfounded budgetary fidelity. The statement reads: “I read the statement by the Federal Inland Revenue Service and I am rather disappointed at their intellectual laziness. “Who is the FIRS trying to fool by claiming that its annual subvention is not up to a N100 billion? That is an unintelligent attempt to fool the public. “The FIRS, like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Central Bank of Nigeria and the Securities and Exchange Commission, are revenue-generating agencies of the Federal Government that do not depend on budgetary subventions. “These agencies are able to appropriate huge funds from the monies they generate for their use.” He urged the agency to come clean and tell Nigerians the reason for the discrepancies, which exist in their records of tax collection. “For example, on January 7, 2019, the Federal Inland Revenue Service announced that it had broken Nigeria’s all-time revenue generation record by generating N5.3 trillion in 2018.”
Source: Independent