A coalition of civil society groups on Friday took a protest to the National Assembly over the N89 trillion stamp duty proceeds which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has not been able to account for.

The protesters numbering over 400 wondered where a House of Representatives member, Muhammed Kazaure, came up with such damning allegations.

The coalition Insisted that the allegation of N89tn was politically motivated to tarnish the image of CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele and President Muhammadu Buhari, who are trying to effect a cashless policy to revamp the Nigerian economy.

Kazaure had raised the alarm of alleged theft of stamp duty proceeds running into N89 trillion.

The Jigawa-born lawmaker claimed he was in possession of valid documents to prove the existence of such funds in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) custody.

He also alleged that the apex bank has not remitted stamp duty revenue to government coffers as tax insisting that the bank remits only 60 per cent to the government while 40 per cent goes to private pockets.

The lawmaker also alleged Emefeile kept another $171bn in the bank’s private investors account, being proceeds of stamp duty.

But leaders of the coalition, Bassey Etuk Williams and Abubakar Ibrahim, who led the protest march to the National Assembly, said they observed that since the CBN Governor announced the implementation of cashless policy and redesign of naira notes, a policy that probably does not go down well with some political class, they have been plotting ways of bringing to disrepute the personality of Governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele.

Bassey said: “Our attention has been drawn to the funny allegation flying around about stamp duty mismanaged money allegedly to a tune of N89 trillion according to a dissolved presidential committee that has Hon. Kazaure as Secretary. We are amazed that despite the dissolution of the said committee, he is still pressing for submission of the report and going about slandering the name of the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele.

“As a group we know that even the total banking deposit in the country is not up to N50 trillion not to talk of the said amount, so one wonders where the said sum emanated from and how they arrived at such an amount, yet the country is still broke.

“We also wonder why a member of the parliament will be made secretary of an alleged secret presidential committee when the report will still need to be submitted to the parliament for adoption, if at all such a committee ever existed.

“We cannot imagine a parliamentarian peddling lies against govt officials. To go on air to tell everyone that 89trn is missing. We consider this approach by Kazuare as political propaganda and witch hunting against the person of the CBN governor.

“This we will not sit down and allow based on the noticeable reforms being put in place by the Governor for the country as a whole at the expense of the very few mismanaging our common wealth before now.”

•Protesting members of A coalition of civil society groups on Friday at the National Assembly over the N89 trillion stamp duty proceeds which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has not been able to account for.

Update news