The Senate on Wednesday, November 11, decried the mismanagement surrounding the Treasury Single Account, TSA, initiative.
A motion moved by Dino Melaye titled: “Abuse and Mismanagement of the
Treasury Single Account” frowned at the massive funds being siphoned
off by a company known as REMITA .
Melaye had raised alarm at a previous plenary saying the company was bleeding the nation of billions daily.
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“The Federal Government on 15th of September 2015 mopped up the sum of N2.5trn through its E-collection agent called REMITA .“REMITA charges 1% of all monies passing through it, of which 1% of
the N2.5 trn mopped up on the 15th of September alone amounted to N25bn
largesse to REMITA for doing nothing.
“The appointment of REMITA as an agent for the operations of the TSA negates and contravenes the constitution.
“The activities of REMITA are a gross violation of the BOFIA Act and another attempt of ripping Nigerians of tax payer’s money,” he submitted.
Senate Leader, Ali Ndume while supporting the motion said it called for all seriousness.
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“Let us take this seriously and I hope that after investigation, if it
is true that somebody is involved in this then he is a sabotage trying
to do things like it was done in the past.
About 19 senators supported the motion in addition to 31 Co- sponsors.
They all noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, was the sole
institution mandated to collect and disburse funds on behalf of the
Federal Government.
Enyinnaya Abaribe in his contributions referred to the motion as very
important and one that should be treated independent of party lines
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“When matters like this come up it is no longer treated as partisan, otherwise I would have asked where is the promised change?“When the investigations are done let us make it known because
someone would have given this instruction. We need to know that person
who is so powerful.”
Enyinnaya Abaraibe called for a thorough investigation to unmask whatever party was behind the scheme.
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“Somebody made this decision and we must ask; who gave this order; who
is that person in this country that is so powerful to direct MDAs to pay
money into a private account.“We should not cover anybody in this investigation no matter how
highly placed. We are hearing that the money has gone up to 60 billion;
one company is taking 60 billion of our money?” he queried.
According to Akpan Bassey he decried that this issue amongst others
had contributed to unemployment issues with 98% of this number youths.
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“I will personally lead the youths of this country on a protest against
this present administration if nothing is done to address the current
state of unemployment.“We must realise that it is total N25m in one day and which is now N65m.”
The Senate resolved to move against CBN, stopping them from making payments to REMITA.
Senate President, Bukola Saraki took over from Deputy, Ike
Ekwerremadu at the plenary session following his attendance of the
inauguration of the Federal Executive Council.
He lauded the motion on the TSA cash bleed.
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“This is a very important subject matter. We hope that the committee
will do a very diligent job that will come up to standard and quantify
the nature of the motion,” he said.
