Blackmail Won’t Stop Probe Of N30trn Scam – Senate

BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA – The Senate on Thursday vowed to continue its probe of N30 trillion revenue scam in the import and export chain, saying no amount of blackmail would stop it.
Disclosing this to newsmen after meeting with some of the companies allegedly linked to the scam, the Chairman of Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff and Marine Transport, Sen. Hope Uzodinma, declared that the upper chamber of the National Assembly was only interested in assisting the executive arm of government to recover the missing funds.
According to Uzodinma, “There are allegations that the investigation is borne out of personal interest. Once a Senate in a committee of the whole passes a resolution such as this, it cannot be termed as the decision of a single senator.
“You may not like my face as a person but it is important to look at the credibility of the work we are doing. This is so that together we will succeed in making sure that the import and export circle is sanitised, trade is facilitated and non-oil revenue is recovered and strengthened. In that manner, government will not rely so much on oil and with that, whether crude oil is sold or not.”
The senators vowed not to be distracted by allegations that the investigation was a sham. He disclosed that some of the indicted firms have commenced refunding funds running into billions of naira to the government.
“As a result of this investigation the banks which are the authorised dealers in the export and import chain have been making effort to remit everything collected by them to the Central Bank. We are doing this on a friendly note because we do not want to send a wrong signal to the market.
“Although more funds other than the N120bn I announced some time ago have been recovered we do not want to send the wrong signal, so we are limited to speak further on how much has been recovered so far.
“However, we will definitely come up with the figures recovered at the end of the investigation,” said Uzodinma.