Operatives of the Department of State Security have stormed the Lagos office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, preventing officials of the anti-graft agency from gaining access to their office in Ikoyi, Lagos.

Impeccable sources in both agencies told The PUNCH that there has been an ongoing rivalry between the DSS and the EFCC over the ownership of the building.

Our correspondent gathered that the DSS operatives stormed the office around 7:00 am on Tuesday, and refused to leave despite dialogue between operatives of both agencies, an impeccable source confirmed the development to our correspondent in a telephone interview.

An official of the EFCC who spoke with our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said, “There’s been a running battle between us and the DSS over who owns the office because the office was used by them before the EFCC came on board and it was handed over to us.

“But it’s been an administrative issue, and the matter is not in court and hasn’t caused any fracas before now. But we don’t understand why they have to block our office and deny our officials access when a new government just came in.”

“The office used to be ours, and we have been fighting over it for years now, and the EFCC knows,” a DSS source said.

Meanwhile, spokespersons for both agencies, Wilson Uwujaren of the EFCC, and Dr Peter Afunaya of the DSS did not respond to inquiries by our correspondent over the development.

•Records N32trn revenue, spends N68tn 

The Federal Government has incurred a deficit spending of N36.8 trillion in eight years under the administration of President Mohammadu Buhari from 2015 to 2022.

Vanguard analysis of data from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, on Federal Government finances from 2015 to 2022 revealed that 77 per cent of the deficit spending occurred in the last four years, from 2019 to 2022.

The data revealed that total revenue for the eight years stood at N32.05 trillion, while total expenditure during the period stood at N68.8 trillion, indicating  deficit spending of N36.8 trillion.

In the first four years, 2015 to 2018, the government recorded N13.9 trillion as revenue but spent N24.3 trillion, resulting in deficit spending of N10.4 trillion.

However, the deficit spending jumped by 60 per cent in the last four years, 2019 to 2022. 

Compared to the previous four years, revenue rose by 31 percent to N18.2 trillion, while expenditure rose by 83 percent to N44.5trillion. Consequently, deficit spending rose to N26.4 trillion, translating to 60 percent increase when compared with the previous four years.

Further analysis showed that over 22 per cent of the eight year deficit spending was incurred in 2022 alone.

During the year, the Federal Government’s revenue grew by 14.7 per cent to N5.05 trillion from N4.4 trillion in 2021, while expenditure stood at N13.4 trillion in 2022, up by 14.5 percent from N11.7 trillion in 2021.

As a result, the government incurred N8.3 trillion as deficit spending, representing a 13.6 per cent increase from N7.3 trillion in 2021.       

Fuel subsidy

A major factor behind the spike in deficit spending is the steady and sharp increase in fuel subsidy spending which stood at N9.34 trillion in the eight years from 2015 to 2022.

Vanguard analysis revealed that annual fuel subsidy spending shot up by 571 per cent to N4.39 trillion in 2022 from N654 billion in 2015. 

National debt rises 267%

Given that the N36.8 trillion deficit incurred in the eight year period was financed by borrowing, total debt stock, according to data from the Debt Management Office, DMO, rose sharply by 267 per cent or N33.65 trillion to N46.25 trillion in 2022 from N12.6 trillion in 2015. This excludes the N23 trillion borrowed from CBN as Ways and Means. 

IMF, World Bank 

According to the World Bank, the rise in deficit spending as well as the huge debt stock will worsen except the government goes ahead with the proposed removal of fuel subsidy, even as it recommended other measures to strengthen the economy.

The World Bank stated in the Macro Poverty Outlook for Nigeria: April 2023 brief released last month: “The fiscal position deteriorated. In 2022, the cost of petrol subsidy increased from 0.7 per cent to 2.3 per cent of GDP. Low non-oil revenues and high-interest payments compounded fiscal pressures.

“The fiscal deficit was estimated at 5.0 per cent of GDP in 2022, breaching the stipulated limit for a federal fiscal deficit of 3 per cent.

“This has kept the public debt stock at over 38 per cent of GDP and pushed the debt service to revenue ratio from 83.2 per cent in 2021 to 96.3 per cent in 2022.

“Fiscal and debt pressures will increase if the petrol subsidy is not phased out in June 2023, as envisaged in the 2023 Budget.”

Similarly, the International Monetary Fund, IMF, in its Nigeria: 2022 Article IV Consultation, stated: “Directors highlighted the need for bold fiscal reforms to create needed policy space, put public debt on sound footing, and reduce vulnerabilities. 

“They urged the authorities to deliver on their commitment to remove fuel subsidies by mid-2023, and to increase well-targeted social spending.

“Strengthening revenue mobilization, including through tax administration reforms, expanding the tax automation system and strengthening taxpayer segmentation, and improving tax compliance is also a priority.”

Adeyemi Adeniran, the father of a student of Chrisland High School Opebi, Whitney, who died during the school’s sporting activities at Agege Stadium, Lagos State, on Thursday, told a High Court sitting in the Ikeja area of the state that he got to know his 12-year-old daughter was electrocuted through a group created on a social media application known as Snapchat.

In his narration to Justice Oyindamola Ogala, the deceased’s father said he was at work when his wife, Blessing, called and informed him that she was told that their daughter, who left home very healthy, slumped at the stadium and was rushed to the hospital.

Adeyemi said his wife told him that the principal of the school said Whitney was already regaining consciousness when they rushed her to the Agege Central Hospital.

He said, “I dropped everything I was doing, and proceeded to Agege. It took me 45 minutes to locate the place. When I arrived, I saw my wife and she told me to go inside and pray for my daughter, maybe she will wake up. When I got inside, I saw her lifeless body on a table in a small room.

“I went close to my daughter, raised her up to my body, shouted, tapped her to wake up, prayed but nothing happened. I asked for the doctor of the facility and knelt down before the woman (doctor) to do whatever she could do to wake my daughter but she said there was nothing to do and that she was brought in dead.

“I asked what happened to my daughter and the nurse said she slumped. She said she was already dilated and that she died at the stadium but she could not pronounce her dead because she is not a medical doctor. So I said you only brought her (here) to pronounce her dead, and she said yes.”

As he was engaging the nurse, Whitney’s father said the doctor in charge of the clinic informed him that they needed to wrap the corpse of his daughter, requested money and he gave her N15,000.

He explained that he informed some of his friends about the tragedy that befell his daughter, and they met him at the hospital and advised him to report at the police station.

While making plans to go to the station, Adeyemi said the doctor requested seeing him privately, and during the meeting, advised him not to waste time in burying Whitney’s corpse.

The bereaved father said, “She really persuaded me. She said I should bury her on time and not put her corpse in the morgue and bother to conduct an examination. I nearly agreed at a point, I don’t even know of any morgue.

“Prior to that day, we played together, and she (Whitney) never complained of ill health. I started asking myself why I should bury my daughter in a hurry without knowing what happened to her.

“But she (the doctor) said the money and pain I will go through in the process of autopsy. I told her what other pain is worse than the death of a child and how much money will I spend to bring her back alive. I said I must get to know what happened.”

Adeyemi told the court that around 7pm on that fateful day, Whitney’s corpse was taken to the LASUTH, where a pathologist advised them to write a petition in a bid to get the autopsy done.

Narrating further, Adeyemi said he was persuading his wife to sleep when Whitney’s phone started making noise.

He explained that when the deceased’s sister, Amaka, used a password to unlock the phone, they discovered a school snap chat group called ‘Lagos Housewives.

The witness said some of Whitney’s colleagues, who sent messages to the group, said they knew the school would not tell them the truth, adding that one of the students revealed that his daughter was electrocuted.

He said, “The student wrote, ‘We are there, and we saw what happened, she was electrocuted.’ Another one said she saw Whitney on the iron rail close to the candy machine that she wanted to buy and that wire shocked her and she fell to the ground, started foaming in her mouth and one stupid man came and started putting water on her.”

The prosecution tendered the printed copy of the messages posted on the snap chat group and further told the court when the school management came for a condolence visit, they told the family not to go on social media.

While being cross-examined by the defendants’ counsels, Mrs Bimpe Ajegbomogun and Chief Richard Ahonarougho (SAN), the witness said his daughter was never a sickle-cell patient.