Federal Government Sacks Postmaster-general Over Stamp Duty Controversy

Federal Government - The rift between the Minister of Communications and the Nigerian Postal Service over the collection of stamp duty on Tuesday, claimed its first victim as the Federal Government sacked the acting Postmaster General of the Federation.

President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government has officially sacked the acting Postmaster General of the Federation, Enoch Ogun, as the rift between the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, and the Nigerian Postal Service over the collection of stamp duty on Tuesday claimed its first victim.

It was gathered that trouble started for Enoch on Tuesday when he was summoned to the Ministry of Communications with his Deputy Postmaster General.

At the meeting which was presided over by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Sonny Echeno, Enoch was told that the minister had approved his retirement and had directed that he should hand over to the most senior officer in the organisation, Dr. Richard Balami.

Enoch who was due to retire from NIPOST by the end of December 2015, was directed to remain in office until a substantive Postmaster General was appointed, as the process of appointing a substantive PMG and Chief Executive Officer of the postal organisation, has been on and he applied for the job which was thrown open.

It was learnt that following the development, Balami’s appointment was announced as the new acting PMG via a circular. Until his appointment, Balami was DPMG, Special Duties.

It can be recalled that the Ministry of Communications and the Nigerian Postal Services were on a collision course over the appointment of agents for the collection of stamp duties in several sectors of the economy.

NIPOST had last week interviewed about 30 new companies and individuals who had applied to serve as agents to NIPOST for the collection of stamp duties but Shittu in a statement on Monday, said NIPOST had not been authorised to appoint any new agent for the collection of stamp duties.

The minister, who has yet to return from a trip to South Korea and China, said the process should be suspended until grey areas surrounding the agency’s claims had been sorted and until a substantive Postmaster-General had been appointed.

Source: Tori.ng