By Thompson Yamput
The Kogi Government on Wednesday threatened to arrest and prosecute illegal revenue collectors across the state.
Alhaji Sule Enehe, Executive Chairman,
Kogi State Internal Revenue Service (KGIRS) made the disclisur during an intertactive session with news men, in Lokoja on Wednesday.
Enehe said: “The activities of illegal revenue collection is becoming worrisome in spite of repeated warnings. We are going all out for those illegal revenue collectors across the state.
“This involved in this unconstitutional act have to stop or face the full wrath of the law.
“This is because we are aware that some individuals still hide under transport unions to collect certain illegal levies from motorcycle and tricycle operators.
“They usually block the roads in places like Adankolo junction, suya junction near the federal university Lokoja, first 200 housing unit junction, old market among other places within Lokoja Metropolis and the LGAs, ” he lamented.
The KGSIRS boss, vowed that the service would continue to block all leakages in the system in order to boost revenue generation of the State.
According to him, perpetrators of the illegal act will soon be apprehended and prosecuted in accordance with the existing laws of the land.
The Chairman maintained that collection of revenue due for Kogi state was the statutory function of KGIRS as spelt out by the law, advising those indulging in illegal collection of revenue to change trade, stressing that the revenue agency would not have mercy for offenders.
“We will not relent on our oars until we rid the state of illegal tax collectors because their actions and activities are already posing security threat to the state. They blocked highways at will to extort money from people in the name of tax collection and we don’t know them.
“The law for revenue collection in Kogi State is very clear to every body and we don’t expect any union to be collecting revenue meant for government, it is illegal and we are appealing to the security agencies in the state to assist us so that we can continually clampdown heavily on them.
“If they refused to change trade and leave the illegal act, we will not be tired of clamping down on them because no body is above the law in Kogi state” he warned.
On the implementation of the Land Use Charged Law, Enehe stated that its implementation would pave way for better infrastructure, improved public services and a greater future for the people of Kogi.
He said that when fully implemented, it could foster data-driven decision making, pave the way for the development of smart cities and jobs creation in the state.
The chairman said that the service does not want anything to affect the 2025 Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) target of N39 billion.
He stated that the state government was doing all it could to provide the desired social amenities such as Water, roads, electricity, schools and health care centres for the people of the state.
