Kwara Govt To Probe State Revenue Agency Under PDP

Relations between Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders in Kwara State and the new All Progressives Congress (APC) administration appear to have degenerated as the Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq administration has vowed to “thoroughly” investigate activities of the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS) under the tenure of the PDP.

The decision to probe the KWIRS was taken following the denial of the former state assembly Speaker, Ali Ahmad of the assembly’s involvement in a 5 billion fraud uncovered by the EFCC.

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The EFCC had in a statement on November 22, 2019 said it had uncovered how 24 ex-lawmakers of the assembly, former Commissioner for Finance, Ademola Banu and some companies allegedly swindled the state of about N5 billion.

According to the statement, the money belongs to KWIRS between 2015 to 2019 adding that the immediate past chairman of the agency, Muritala  Awodu, former member of the assembly Moshood Bakare and some staff of the revenue service are presently being interrogated by the anti-graft agency.

But in a statement issued on Wednesday and signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Rafiu Ajakaye said Ahmad’s allegation that the government accused him and his colleagues of embezzlement was false since it was the EFCC, and not the state government that made the allegation.

The statement read in part: “A careful reading of our statement showed that we neither accused him nor the former House members of embezzlement. The EFCC did. And we are aware that the anti-graft agency, true to its position, has started recovering stolen public funds from PDP council members and House of Assembly members.

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“Also, the Kwara public has been around long enough to distinguish between political witch-hunt, harassment of dissents, and a fair attempt to make officials fully accountable for their deeds through lawful means.

“Finally, we hereby accept the challenge Ahmad has thrown at this administration. We will conduct a thorough investigation into the activities of the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KW-IRS) and make public our findings about what truly went down in the period under discourse,” it concluded.

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