FIRS boss Nami fires top directors

The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Muhammad Nami, has relieved directors who have served eight years and above, of their positions.

Nami succeeded Babatunde Fowler as FIRS boss in December of 2019.

In a memo he personally signed and which was dated 24th March, 2020, Nami wrote that “this is to formally notify you that the Board of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) at its emergency meeting N0 2 held on 20th March 2020 approved the retirement of all directors who have served eight years and above as directors in the service. In line with Para 10.1 (a) (iii) of HRPP.

We wish them well in their future endeavours.

The Board also gave its approval for the appointment of four (4) Coordinating Directors in Acting capacity and two (2) Group Leads for six (months) as follows:

a..Coordinating Directors in Acting capacity

Dr. Asheikh Maidugu CD/Executive Chairman’s Group

Dr Olufemi Oladeji Oluwaniyi CD/Tax Operations Group

Mr. Innocent Chinyere Ohagwa CD/General Services Group

Mr. Ezra Usman Zubairu CD/Enforcement Support Group

b..Group Leads

Mrs. Faosat Oguniyi Compliance Support Group

Ms Chiaka Okoye Digital Support Group

We congratulate them and enjoin staff to continue to work hard and support management towards meeting and surpassing our revenue targets.

FIRS letter from Nami announcing retirement of top directors (Pulse) FIRS letter from Nami announcing retirement of top directors (Pulse) Pulse Nigeria

However, sources at FIRS tell Pulse that this is Nami’s way of weeding out Fowler loyalists and installing his stooges.

“They retired directors in my office...He has brought his own people and made them heads of departments. If this was done by Fowler, the news would have been everywhere. The man has even made juniors heads over directors,” one source offered.

Pulse could not immediately verify these allegations as Nami wasn’t available for comments for this story at the time of reporting.

Nami, 52, is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Institute of Debt Recovery Practitioners of Nigeria and Associate Member of the Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) and Association of National Accountants of Nigeria.

He began his career with PFK in 1993 and rose to the position of a senior Consultant in charge of Tax management and advisory services.