N90b Allegations: I Will Waive My Constitutional Immunity – Prof Osinbajo

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has personally reacted to an allegation that he took N90billion from the Federal Inland Revenue Service to fund the 2019 general elections.

The allegation was made by a former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Timi Frank.

The VP said he would waive his constitutional immunity to pave the way for the “most robust adjudication” over the matter.

His Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Laolu Akande, said on Wednesday that Osinbajo made the declaration in a tweet.

It reads, “In the past few days, a spate of reckless and malicious falsehoods have been peddled in the media against me by a group of malicious individuals.

“The defamatory and misleading assertions invented by this clique had mostly been making the social media rounds anonymously.

“I have today instructed the commencement of legal action against two individuals, one Timi Frank and another Katch Ononuju, who have put their names to these odious falsehoods.

“I will waive my constitutional immunity to enable the most robust adjudication of these claims of libel and malicious falsehood.”

Recall that the Federal Inland Revenue Service had on Monday said it was not true that it provided N90bn to finance the election campaign of the All Progressives Congress during the last presidential election.

The service said this in a statement by the Director, Communications, Mr Wahab Gbadamosi, in reaction to claims by a former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr Timi Frank, that it supported the APC, through  Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, with N90bn.

The FRIS had stated, “The FIRS said in the last four years since the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr Tunde Fowler, supervised operations at the FIRS, the agency had not received up to N90bn per annum as cost of collection from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee.More in Home

The service said it was from the remittances from FAAC which had never grossed up to N100bn per annum that it paid salaries and emoluments and trained its over 8,000 members of staff, and managed over 150 offices.

“The FIRS operates on behalf of Nigerians. Taxpayers’ money, including the operational funds of the service, is sacred and we exercise extra care and diligence in expenditures, even after such funds must have been appropriated by the National Assembly.”

The FIRS in the statement had asked members of the public to ignore the claims of the former national publicity secretary of the APC.