The government therefore urged Nigerians not to allow those who have been living lavish lifestyles through corrupt means to the detriment of ordinary citizens and without bothering about national interest, to sabotage the TSA initiative with contrived lies, dangerous innuendoes and outright misinformation.
In what seemed a reaction to assertions by Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State in a statement on Sunday, Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information said in a statement that there is no way unappropriated funds from public tills will be used to finance elections under the Muhammadu Buhari administration, even if such was the norm under his predecessor.
Fayose had in a statement yesterday alleged that deductions were being paid to a company from funds being mopped up under TSA to fund the forthcoming elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states.
“It is understandable that the psyche of those who are making the frivolous allegations concerning the TSA has been badly affected by the impunity that permeated the country under the immediate past Administration, when unappropriated funds were freely used to finance elections and the public till was seen as an extension of personal piggy banks.
”But the lies that have been wilfully disseminated by scandalmongers over the TSA cannot and will not fly, because it was precisely to put an end to such impunity that Nigerians voted massively for President Muhammadu Buhari, who has an unblemished reputation for integrity, due process, transparency and the rule of law,” he said while affirming that no one has tampered with TSA Funds.
He added that the TSA initiative is working because of the commitment of the President.
Senator Dino Melaye had kicked off controversies over the funds on Monday when he alleged during senate plenary that a company being used to implement TSA has received N25 billion based on one per cent commission it was collecting from funds remitted to the FG through its payment platform, REMITA.
The Senate has already asked its committee on Public Accounts and Finance to investigate the allegations.
But Mohammed said the allegation is a reflection of the ignorance of those peddling the rumours.
”Those behind the rumour that a single company, Systemspecs, made 25 billion Naira from charging 1 per cent of TSA funds that passed through the company’s software, Remita, may need to return to elementary school to get some lessons in arithmetic.
”This is because in order for 1 per cent charge to fetch 25 billion Naira, the funds accruing into the TSA must have reached 2.5 trillion Naira. Yet, the total amount of funds in the TSA to date is still much less than 2 trillion.
”More importantly, at the time the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ordered that all monies that were erroneously charged as ‘revenue’ be returned to the TSA Account late last month, the TSA had less than 800 billion Naira. It therefore beggars belief that anyone could attempt to mislead the public by raising a false alarm that a firm made 25 billion Naira in TSA charges,” the Information Minister said.