By Joe Chukindi The tax policies of the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo has come under intense focus again. ...
By Joe Chukindi
The tax policies of the Governor of Anambra State, Prof.
Chukwuma Soludo has come under intense focus again.
DAILY POST reports that last Friday, there was pandemonium
at Kings Planet International School as gun wielding security operatives
invaded the school, on the pretext of enforcing tax payment.
Also, foodstuff traders in Awka have protested the high tax
imposed on them, threatening to stop operations in Anambra if the practice was
not stopped.
The management of Kingsplanet International School, Awka, on
Tuesday protested the action of the security operatives, alleging that its
staff and pupils were bullied, while others were traumatised.
DAILY POST gathered that the incident happened last Friday,
as an enforcement team from the Anambra State Signage Agency (ANSAA) in the
company of gun wielding security men invaded the school to enforce the payment
of N100,000 for signages belonging to the school.
When DAILY POST visited the school, some members of staff of
the school, which runs a creche, nursery and primary arm, confirmed the
incident, saying that the school was in session last weekend, when the team
arrived.
“Because they were carrying guns, we decided to close the
doors of the classrooms, to avoid the children seeing gun-wielding security men
barging into the school premises, but the security men forced the classroom
rooms open and commanded all the children to leave, saying that they have
orders to shut the school.
“All the children were crying and running helter-skelter,
including the creche section, which consists of very tender kids, but they
showed no mercy at all.
“In the process of the pandemonium in the school, there was
power outage, but we tried to put on the generator, so we can use the CCTV in
the school to monitor the movement of the children, but the security men
refused,” said Modesta Odu, a teaching staff of the school.
The assistant manager of the school, Mr Emmanuel Emeka,
lamented the level of trauma experienced by the pupils as a result of the
incident.
“We begged them not to go ahead with their action as it will
traumatise the kids, but they refused. You needed to be here to see how
security men overran this place.
“Most parents who heard of it moved in to withdraw their
children. Up till this moment, some of the children still feel bad when we have
visitors in the school. We had to reach out to some parents to beg them to
bring back their children.
“We are really disappointed if this is how the Soludo
government intends to go about tax. The team were in our school earlier to
demand payment of N100,000 for four signboards. We told them we didn’t have up
to that number of signboards, so they left, saying they will verify and get
back, and the next thing we saw was the security men.”
The school management called on the Anambra State Governor
to rein in the excesses of some of his aides.
When DAILY POST reached out to the Managing Director of
ANSAA, Mr Tony Ujubuonu, he insisted that the enforcement was as a result of a
court order obtained against the school.
He alleged that the proprietor of the school has been
maligning the agency on social media over the enforcement, but insisted that
the Anambra State government will not relent in ensuring that the right thing
was done.
Meanwhile, foodstuff dealers in Anambra State on Thursday
protested heavy taxation imposed on them by the State government. The traders
threatened to stop supply of goods to the State if the government continued
with the tax regime. They alleged that the State government had been imposing
heavy taxes on them for bringing in foodstuff to the State from the north.
The Chairman of Eke Awka Foodstuff Dealers Association, Mr
Chukwuemeka Onyemechi, during a peaceful protest on Thursday said some hoodlums
allegedly working with government’s agents came to the market and stopped them
from off-loading their goods unless they paid N30,000 per truck as against
N8,000.
“They also insisted that we pay N20,000 for a truck with six
tyres as against N5,000 and the sum of N6,000 for a Datsun truck as against
N500 per truck. After the off-loading of goods, smaller trucks were forced to
pay N3,000 as against N300 before the goods would be allowed to leave the
market,” he lamented.
The traders would not be the first to complain about the tax
policies of the State government.
A lawyer, Mr Jude Eze who spoke on the perceived excessive
tax said: “I do not think this is the best thing for the governor to do.
Nigerians are not so exposed to taxes, so they need to be pampered and not this
kind of chastisement we see everyday in the State.
“Soludo must realise that the economy is very hard, so he
cannot be billing the people for waste, business premises, and several others,
just because he needs money, which he told us he can get from relevant
agencies, during his governorship campaigns.”
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