Former Publicity Secretary of the ruling party, APC has lashed out on Fayose and other critics against the implementation of the TSA which has been termed as a fraudulent move in disguise.
Lai Mohammed
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has suggested that Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti and others kicking against President Muhammadu Buhari’s Treasury Single Account policy should return to elementary school because they have failed to understand the workings of the policy.
“Those behind the rumour that a single company made N25 billion from charging one per cent of TSA funds that passed through the company’s software, may need to return to elementary school to get some lessons in arithmetic,” he said in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr Segun Adeyemi, in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
“This is because in order for one per cent charge to fetch N25 billion, the funds accruing into the TSA must have reached N2.5 trillion.
"Yet, the total amount of funds in the TSA to date is still much less than 2 trillion.
“More importantly, at the time the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ordered that all monies that were erroneously charged as ‘revenue’ be returned to the TSA Account late last month, the TSA had less than N800 billion.
“It therefore beggars belief that anyone could attempt to mislead the public by raising a false alarm that a firm made N25 billion in TSA charges.”
Mohammed appealed to Nigerians not to allow those who had been funding their lavish lifestyles and encouraging corruption, to the detriment of ordinary citizens and without bothering about national interest. He said the accusation was to sabotage the laudable TSA programme with contrived lies, dangerous innuendoes and misinformation.