The notice was contained in a statement signed by Wahab Gbadamosi, FIRS’ Head of Communication and Servicom. The statement quoted the Acting Executive Chairman of FIRS, Abiodun Aina, as saying that the Service has concluded plans to begin tax enforcement against defaulters should they continue to fail in fulfilling their tax obligations.

He said “The FIRS hereby informs all taxpayers (individuals, partnerships, Enterprises,
Corporate organisations, Ministries, Departments and Agencies) who are in default of payment of taxes arising from self-assessment, tax audit, tax investigation, transfer pricing audit, demand notices and any other liabilities, that the Service will commence a nationwide tax enforcement exercise from 18 December, with a view to prosecuting defaulters and recovering all outstanding tax liabilities. All taxpayers are therefore strongly advised to settle their tax liabilities within seven days of the notice to avoid any inconveniences or interruptions in your operations”.

Timi Frank, a former deputy spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC), made the allegation recently, claiming that Osinbajo started having issues when the presidency discovered that he mismanaged N90 billion allegedly made available by the FIRS for 2019 election campaign purposes.

Reacting to the allegation, FIRS in a statement released by Wahab Gbadamosi, its director of information, dismissed the claim, saying the service’s annual allocation is not even up to the said amount.

The statement in part reads “The entire allegation being spread by one Frank Timi that the Federal lnland Revenue Service spent N90 billion to fund the last election is mendacious, wicked, malicious and a calculated attempt to smear the image of the Service and that of his Excellency, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. In the last four years since Mr Tunde Fowler has supervised operations at the FIRS, the agency had not received up to N90 billion, per annum, as Cost of Collection from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC. Mr. Frank and his band of liars might wish to cross-check this from FAAC, a public institution, whose records are open to the public. It is from the remittances from FAAC—which had never grossed up to N100 billion, PER ANNUM, that FIRS pays the salary and emoluments and trains it’s over 8,000 staff, runs over 150 offices and provides for other needs of the Service. Given the above, IT IS NOT PLAUSIBLE nor DOES IT MAKE ANY SENSE that FIRS will commit its resources to a phantom campaign of N90 billion as suggested by Mr Timi Frank and FIRS does not fund political associations. The agency is subject to the eagle eye scrutiny, supervision and close monitoring by the National Assembly, the Federation Account Allocation Committee and the Ministry of Finance through the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, OAGF”.