 |
| Adedeji |
Zacch Adedeji, Executive Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), has rejected online reports accusing the agency of involvement in a fictitious fraud tied to the Frontier Exploration Fund, calling the claims “sponsored fake news.”
The circulating story alleged that $279 million was moved from the Fund’s account to unnamed accounts and suggested that Adedeji and the NRS were aware of the alleged illegal transfers. It also said stakeholders were demanding a forensic audit of the Fund’s accounts.
Speaking by telephone, Adedeji dismissed the allegations as baseless and the product of individuals intent on damaging his reputation and the NRS’s standing. He urged the public to disregard the reports.
“That report is not true in any way. It is pure fake news sponsored by some jobless persons whose pastime is to throw mud at high performers in the President Tinubu government. I consider it to be a brand of cheap journalism lacking in ethics and professionalism but heavy with malicious intentions.
“To prove to you that it was sponsored, take a critical look at the storyline and language. They are the same language and style in all the reports, meaning that one person wrote it and distributed across gullible online platforms,” Adedeji said.
The NRS chairman said that the sponsors of the report exhibited lack of understanding on what the Frontier Fund was all about and how it is disbursed.
He explained that the Frontier Exploration Fund was established under Section 9 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021 and was meant to finance petroleum exploration activities in frontier basins where commercially viable hydrocarbon reserves are yet to be fully established,
The frontier basins include Bida, Benue Trough, Anambra, Chad, Sokoto and Dahomey Basins. The Fund, we gathered, is to be used for expenses in geological mapping, seismic surveys, exploratory drilling, appraisal wells, basin studies and other exploration activities.
0 comments:
Post a Comment