House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila said Rep Gudaji Kazaure is acting alone in his mission to unravel the N89 trillion stamp duty allegations against CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele.
Gbajabiamila revealed this after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday night.
The meeting with Buhari on the matter followed news that an Abuja-based Federal High Court had rejected a request by the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest and detain CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele.
Acting without official function: According to the Nigerian News Agency (NAN), Gbajabiamilia stressed that Kazaure was acting without an official role. He said:
- “Kazaure, as I understand it, is working with whoever he is working with. If it is necessary for the Chamber to enter, we will enter. If you have an official function, you should go ahead and do your job, but this has nothing to do with the National Assembly. Not that I know.
- “It was not based on a resolution of the National Assembly. It was not based on a motion of the National Assembly.”
However, he noted that Kazaure may have been granted executive authority, saying:
- “I think he said he had executive authority to do what he’s doing. If that is the case, then he has nothing to do with the National Assembly.
- “I think it’s important to separate the two. If he has a mandate to do something, that’s on him.
- “When it came up, we asked members of the executive and they said they were unaware of any mandate, or that mandate has been withdrawn.
- “I don’t want to get into it, except to the extent that he tries to impugn the integrity of the members of the House and that’s a no-no. We have nothing to do with this.
- “We discussed things that have come up in recent weeks, things that have come up every day in Nigeria, every day and in the last few days, some things have come up.
- “I’m sure you know some of these things, and I just wanted to get your perspective on them and give you mine and the National Assembly’s perspective and position on those issues. We had a fruitful discussion.”
Kazaure’s accusations: Kazaure, a member of the House of Representatives from Jigawa, accused Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele of attempts to cover up events related to the collection of the controversial stamp duty funds.
He urged the president to either allow him to present his Report to him or immediately order a full investigation into the alleged stamp duty funds.
In case you missed it: Nairametry previously reported An Abuja-based Federal High Court reportedly rejected a request by the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest and detain CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele.
The lawsuit, with reference number FHC/Abj/CS/2255/2022, had the Department of State Services as plaintiff.
DSS was trying to arrest Emefiele on accusations that bothered “acts of financing of terrorism, fraudulent activities and economic crimes with a national security dimension”.