The Senator representing Kogi West in Kogi State, Senator Dino Melaye has said that Nigerians who looted the National Treasury have returned N8billion and believes that more monies will be refunded in a short while.
“As I speak to you, about N8billion has been refunded to the treasury of government and I know more monies will be refunded”, he said.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Senator Dino Melaye said, “Basically, I want to say that when I raised this motion on the floor of the Senate, I got a lot of insults on social media, everywhere, that I was blabbing and there was no truth in the content of my presentation.
“But I tweeted that the truth has no colour and every lie has an expiry date.
“I want to thank God that I have been vindicated by the public hearing where my revelations on the floor of the Senate have given room for confession even by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s governor, Godwin Emefiele”.
While answering a question on how he got an insight into the alleged illegality and exorbitant commission charged for the deployment of Remita, the senator said, “I will want to say that the Treasury Single Account (TSA) is a very laudable programme which is going to help in blocking leakages and I support it.
“My prayer on the day I moved the motion was to commend President Muhammadu Buhari for the implementation of the TSA, but I was challenging the instrumentality of the TSA, that it is being used by some individuals to undercut Nigerians and our national patrimony”.
Senator Melaye had argued that the use of Remita was a violation of Section 162(1) of the constitution, which stated that “the federation shall maintain a special account to be called the federation account into which all revenues collected by the government of the federation except the proceeds from the personal income tax of the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Force, the ministry or department of government charged with foreign affairs and the residents of the FCT, Abuja”.
He further stated that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) could only appoint a registered bank as an agent for collecting and disbursing the funds.
The senator said that since Remita was not a bank, its appointment as a collection agent was in violation of the CBN Act and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2007.
Giving his view on the amount he would recommend for private bodies for doing government jobs, Melaye said that “the Senate is geared towards blocking leakages and also negotiating to the barest minimum, the advantage of Nigerians and the national treasury.
“We are not saying that private companies engaged in almost all platforms used by the government shouldn’t be paid, but what we are saying is that nothing outrageous should be paid at the detriment of our national purse”, he said.