Kogi State Internal Revenue Denies Alleged Diversion of N3bn

Yekini Jimoh in Lokoja
The Kogi State Internal Revenue Services, (KGIRS), yesterday denied a report alleging that it diverted N3 billion meant to be remitted to the coffers of the state government.

It was alleged that the Chairman of the Kogi State Board of Internal Revenue, Alhaji. Yakubu Oseni was being investigated for funds diversion and money laundering by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

But  the agency’s Head of Administration and Human Resources, Mrs. Asanat Salihu while reacting to the allegations on behalf of the agency, said the monthly revenue of the state has never exceeded N1 billion and wondered how the agency’s head or anybody could divert N3b as is been reported.

Addressing journalists yesterday,  she said the report was fake, baseless, misleading and politically masterminded because the chairman of the board has just indicated interest to contest for the Kogi Central senatorial election in 2019.

“Our task in this organisation is just to collect and collate the revenue 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 a signatory to the accounts.

“Money paid into this accounts are channelled through E- transact before hitting the state governments account. Only the state government are signatory to the accounts.
“What accrued to this organisation is just 10 per cent commission of what we are able to collect each months. And this is used to pay the staff salaries and used in handling other overhead costs.

“This organisation 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.”
Salihu who also denied that the EFCC was investigating the organisation over the “missing money”, said the news is fake and disturbing.