The Federal Government says the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) will continue to collect Value Added Tax (VAT) following the ruling of the Court of Appeal on the matter.
The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said this in New York, the United States (U.S.) while speaking on the disagreement over the collection of VAT between FIRS and Rivers State Government.
The chief law officer of the federation explained that the ruling of the Court of Appeal that FIRS and the Rivers Government maintain status quo, favoured FIRS.
He said that it was Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) that had been collecting the VAT before the dispute arose, over which the Rivers government approached the High Court.
“The position of not only the Federal Government but indeed the judiciary is the fact that status quo associated with the collecting of VAT should be maintained,” Malami said.
“And as far as the judicial system is concerned, the status quo as at the time the parties approached the court, it was the Federal Inland Revenue Service that was indeed collecting the value added tax.
“So with that in mind, the Federal Government has succeeded in obtaining an order that establishes the sustenance of the status quo, which status quo is that the Federal Inland Revenue Service should continue collection.
“This is pending the determination of the cases that were instituted by states, particularly the Rivers State Government and the Lagos State government. The cases are being determined by the court.”
The Rivers government had urged the Supreme Court to set aside the Court of Appeal’s September 10 ruling ordering it and FIRS to maintain status quo on the issue of VAT collection.
A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal headed by Haruna Tsammani, issued the order being challenged at the Supreme Court by the Rivers government.
The state also urged the apex court to disband the panel of the appelate court, which gave the interim order and ordered another one to be constituted to hear the case.
“But one thing of interest is the fact that the Federal Government had indeed taken cognisance of the fact that where there exists a dispute between a State and Federal Government, it is the Supreme Court that should naturally have the jurisdiction to determine the dispute between the state and the federation.
“And we are taking steps to consider the possibility of instituting an action before the Supreme Court for the purpose of having this matter determined once and for all,’’ Malami said.
Malami also said the Federal Government may file a fresh action against Yoruba secessionist agitator, Sunday Adeyemo (also know as Sunday Igboho), following the judgement of Oyo State High Court which awarded N20 billion in damages in his favour.
To him, the federal government had the right to appeal the Judgement or file a fresh charge.
The judge, Ladiran Akintola, had awarded the money as “an exemplary and aggravated damages” against the AGF and the State Security Service (SSS), over the invasion of Adeyemo’s home in Ibadan on July 1.
However, Malami said the position of the federal government on the judgement was about “law and jurisdiction”.
“As far as this matter is concerned, which court is it that has the jurisdiction to determine it? And as you rightly know, obedient to court orders and court judgements,” he said.
“But then you have to understand within the context of such obedience that there are associated rights and interests that are vested in the Federal Government.
“Inclusive of rights of appealing against a judgement, inclusive of right to file an application for setting aside the purported judgment and order.
“And indeed, inclusive of the possibility of filling a fresh action if indeed the jurisdiction of the court that was alleged to have indeed handed that judgment is an issue.
“So, we are doing the needful in terms of looking at the law as it exists and then working within the context of the law in ensuring that justice is done as far as the contending issues between the parties are concerned,’’ the minister explained.
Igboho’s counsel, Yomi Alliyu, SAN, had filed a N500 billion fundamental human rights enforcement suit against the AGF, SSS and the Director of the SSS in Oyo State over the invasion of his home in Ibadan on July 1.
Alliyu claimed that his client’s house and cars were damaged, while two occupants of the house were killed by SSS operatives during the incident.
However, counsel to AGF, Abdullah Abubakar, had argued that there was no evidence before the court that the blood seen in the video clip tendered by Alliyu belonged to a human being.
Abubakar also said there was nothing in the video clip that showed that the house that was invaded belonged to Igboho or linked the AGF with the invasion.
Adeyemo is still being held in the Republic of Benin where he was arrested some weeks ago while trying to flee to Germany.
Malami also disclosed that the Federal Government has suceeded in blocking terrorism financing in Nigeria.
The government had also succeeded in identifying and detaining “high profile individuals” responsible for funding terrorists’ activities in the country.
The AGF had announced in May that Nigerian government was about to begin the prosecution of about 400 suspected Boko Haram financiers and was profiling some high-profile Nigerians strongly suspected to be financing terrorism for prosecution.
The delay in their prosecution and unveiling the suspects have been criticised in certain quarters, but Malami assured the federal government was determined to take stringent measures to counter insurgency in the country.
“We have succeeded in identifying those that are responsible for funding terrorists,” the minister said.
“We have also blocked the leakages associated with funding and then embarking on aggressive investigation that is indeed impacting positively in term of the fight against terrorism.
“But then, the truth of the matter is that investigation is ongoing, is advancing and for the purpose of investigation, I wouldn’t like to be pre-emptive in terms of making disclosures that would have the effect of undermining the successes we are recording as far as investigation is concerned.
“But one thing I can tell you for sure is that whatever we do in terms of detention and in terms of arrest is indeed backed by judicial process.
“We have indeed obtained a legitimate court order taking into consideration what we have presented before the court; the court eventually exercised its discretion in terms of granting orders that we can have them in custody.
“This is pending the conclusion of investigation, which investigation in essence is indeed deeply taking place and we are making a lot of successes and recording a lot of progress in the direction of investigation.”
The chief law officer of Nigeria, however, said the issue of terrorism financing was a work in progress and would not like to be pre-emptive in terms of investigation.
“But one thing I can say for sure is, arising from such arrests, the terrorist funding and financing has indeed been crippled substantially and that eventually translated to some major improvements being recorded as far as crippling the strength of terrorists is concerned within the nation.
“You can see visibly that we are indeed witnessing tremendous successes associated with the Boko Haram, which translate to significant decimation of the Boko Haram terrorists.
“They (Boko Haram) have been decimated to a larger extent and you can see what is unfolding as far as the North West banditry activities are concerned.
“They (bandits) are as well been decimated to a larger degree. All these are indeed the effect of what we have done,” he said.
Malami also said that Nigeria was creating a consensus building towards making assets recovery easier for countries.
The minister recalled that Nigeria had recovered 322 million dollars from Switzerland in 2017 and 311 million dollars from the U.S. in 2020.
He said Nigeria was looking at the possibility of recovering further 200 million pounds from the U.S. aside other associated assets being pursued in some other countries.
“We are pursuing a lot of assets across the globe and we intend very soon, we are coordinating a further meeting relating to huge recovery in U.K. associated with certain personalities.
“But I would not like to give further disclosure in respect of that to put into consideration the need not to be pre-emptive as far as our strategies are concerned.
He said the 311 million dollars recovered from Switzerland was deployed to execute the Abuja-Kano highway, the Lagos-Ibadan highway and the Second Niger Bridge.
“So I think we are doing wonderfully well in terms of deploying the recovery of the looted assets and deploying same in projects that impact positively on the lives of people,” he said.
