ABUJA – Senate of the Federal Republic has resolved that uncovered large scale revenue leakages from import waivers, concessions and grants in the sum of N447,451,296,687.87 be recovered and officials invvolved be sanctioned for economic sabotage.
Considering its Committee report on the subject matter yesterday, the Senate also resolved that the Fedral Government should henceforth stop granting waivers for concessionary import of vehicles for international meetings and conferences as it leads to unfair competition.
Instead they resolved that the locally assembled vehicles should be used for such events to improve locaal capacity and contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The frauds according to the Senate, were committed in the regime of President Goodluck Jonathan namely:
2011 – N78,489,941,114.74;
2012 – N128,538,453,758.99;
2013 – N46,056,265,355.78;
2014 – N87,654,744,360.22;
2015 – N106,711,892,098.14
Olam International Limited was said to have exceeded rice import quota for 2014 by 149,469.51 metric tons (mt); Stallion Group/Popular Foods – 529,517,33 mt; Milan Nigeria Limited (Conti Agro) – 44,641.19 mt; and Ebony Agro Nigeria Limited – 10,070 mt.
Revenue accruable to the Federal Government as a result of the foregoing excess imports is valued at N23,603,479,402.44
The Senate further resolved that the FG should recover N10,304,458,203 from six beneficiaries of the 2014 rice import as they did not meet the criteria for granting the waivers.
The companies included: Dangote Limited – N1,031,038,848; Kersuk Farms – N1,927,800,000; Bua Group – N3,704,126,328; Elephant Group – N1,501,627,680; Golden Penny – N284,602,399.20; and Milan Group – N1,855,263,312.
Fufthermore, the upper legislative chamber resolved that purported transfer of N687,496,320 worth of 100,000 mt of rice by JNI Concession to Elephant Group was illegal and should be recovered accordingly.
Later in a chat with correspondents, Senate Majority Leader Ali Ndume assured that the sums would be recovered by President Mohammadu Buhari and that the Senate resolutions were not meant to witch hunt former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Also yesterday, the Bill on sexual harrassment in tertiary institutions passed its Second Reading and was refered to its committee for further legidlative action.
