REJOINDER TO THE PRESS RELEASE BY THE OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE FEDERATION ON THE CONTRACT BETWEEN KASMAL INTERNATIONAL SERVICES LIMITED AND NIPOST

My attention has been drawn to a publication by online media today purporting to be based on a press release made today by Mr. Obon Obla (A special assistant to the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation-AGF) announcing instructions given to the EFCC to investigate the relationship between KASMAL INTERNATIONAL SERVICES -KASMAL and the Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST).

Mr Obono-Obla’s press statement is a clear criminal contempt of the Federal High Court which had on the 24th of February 2016 in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/100/2016 made an order restraining the AGF and the EFCC from “from interfering in a purely contractual relationship between the Applicant and the 23rd Alleged Contemnor (NIPOST) with a view to instigating it to breach its binding agreement with the Applicant as confirmed by several correspondence and the judgments of this honourable Court in Suits nos. FHC/L/CS/1462/2013 and FHC/L/CS/1710/2013……..”.
A copy of the order is attached hereto as ANEXURE KAS1.

The Federal High Court in its judgments in Suits Nos. FHC/L/CS/1462/2013 (between Kasmal and the 22 Deposit Money Banks - DMBs) and FHC/L/CS/1710/2013 (between KASMAL and the Central Bank of Nigeria - CBN) had interpreted the Stamp Duties Act LFN 2004 and the NIPOST Act LFN 2004 and found that the Stamp Duties Act made provision for the exemption of certain documents (including receipts for teller deposits and electronic transfers by Deposit Money Banks for sums of 1000 Naira and above) from payment of stamp duties if the documents have affixed to them 50 Naira postage stamps bought from the NIPOST.

The two actions were brought by KASMAL as public Interest actions to ensure that the banks remitted the 50 Naira to NIPOST after NIPOST had appointed KASMAL as its agent.
NIPOST as a statutory agency with exclusive authority to produce postage stamps in Nigeria has always operated through agents and pays them up to 20% as commission from collections made for sale of postal services including sale of postage stamps. KASMAL’s position is no different from this and it was agreed that if KASMAL could open up this stream of revenue from the DMBs for use of NIPOST postage stamps to denote stamp duties on receipts for teller and electronic transfers, KASMAL would be entitled to N7.50 from every N50 it collected.

Because of KASMAL’S success in the courts and in negotiations with the CBN the CBN agreed to issue a circular on 15th January 2016 requiring the DMBs to remit 50 Naira from every teller deposit and electronic transfer of 1000 NAIRA to NIPOST.
The judgment in FHC/L/CS/1710/2013 required that such remittance be done “through the agency of KASMAL”.

The Federal Government has already budgeted on the basis of the revenues from these collections and made no complaint until KASMAL asked for its commission. It is only because of that lawful contractual demand that the AGF was instigated to interfere in order to scuttle the contractual relationship between KASMAL and NIPOST.

Although pressure has been brought on NIPOST, it has not denied the contractual relationship but has been trying to renegotiate the commission down.
When it came to the attention of KASMAL that the AGF was being used as a spoiler it wrote to the AGF and the EFCC explaining the position to them. Copies of that letter are attached as ANNEXURE KAS 3 & 4.

The press release made by Obono Obla is therefore a mischievous attempt to criminalize a purely civil contract in order to instigate public opinion against a lawful business enterprise that has invested effort, time and resources to open up a stream of revenue that was not in existence before.

Although we have no doubt that right minded observers will see the injustice in the move by the AGF’s office to deprive KASMAL of the fruits of its efforts, we believe that the press release by Obla is mischievous and calculated to bring the judicial process into disrepute. We will bring this unlawful abuse of office to the attention of the court at its next sitting on this matter on the 17th of April 2016.

Dated this 23rd of March 2016

Prince Ajibola Oluyede
LEAD COUNSEL TO KASMAL INTERNATIONAL SERVICES LIMITED