Bizman begs Arase, Ambode over seized truck

…Kicks against collection of taxes on highways

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NIGERIA: FOR impounding his vehicle over what he called demand for “illegal tax”, a businessman has cried out to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Solomon Arase, and the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode.

Mr. Samuel Shittu said impounding his truck on the highway for unlawful reasons by the Lagos State Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, in connivance with the police, was illegal and could lead to anarchy.

Shittu, in a petition signed by his counsel, Adebayo Ayodele and Co, and made available to GatewayMail on Thursday in Abeokuta, said in the petition to Arase and Ambode, that the taxes being collected on the highway had been outlawed.

He explained that he was a victim of such illegality in the hands of men of the ministry and policemen working with the officials.

Shittu, who is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Mushilab Nigeria Limited, said in his two-page petition that the driver of his seized truck was beaten to stupor.

According to the businessman, who attached medical report to support his claim, the extent of the injuries sustained by the driver led to his hospitalization.

He said in the petition that his demand for justice over the alleged brutalization was ignored by the ministry officials.

Shittu urged Arase to urgently withdraw the policemen from the task force, as they had become tools in the hands of the ministry to forcibly collect illegal multiple taxes on the highways that fall within Lagos jurisdiction.

He reminded the IGP and the Lagos helmsman that the Ministerial Implementation Committee on Multiple Taxation had in October 2013, handed the collection of taxes to only the Board of Internal Revenue Service.
Despite this directive, Shittu said, the Lagos State Government had continued, through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Alausa Secretariat to harass, intimidate, coerce and threaten his truck drivers in their quest to whipping them into forceful cooperation.

He added: “This is despite the fact that our client has been paying all approved/relevant levies to the Federal Inland

Revenue Service on regular basis.”
“In one of such operations by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Lagos State, our client’s truck with registration number SRA 514 XA was impounded on 1st February, 2016 by the agents of the ministry in a commando-like style with the assistance of thugs and the police.”

The aggrieved businessman also said that by its action, the ministry had violated sections 2 (1) and 2 (2) of the 2004 Taxes and Levies (Approved List for Collection) Act, which prohibits anyone, including tax authorities, from mounting roadblocks in any part of the country for the purpose of collecting any tax or levy.

In respect of his arguments, Shittu, who sent a copy of his petition to the Chairman of the Joint Tax Board in Abuja, asked Arase to adhere strictly to the existing laws of the land by “stopping the involvement of the police in these economically strangulating activities which in turn fuels anarchy on Federal Highways.”

The businessman charged Ambode to order the Lagos officials to halt further collection of such alleged “unauthorised taxes.”

Shittu, who also addressed a press conference in Abeokuta, pleaded for the release of the seized truck.

He maintained that as at the time the truck was seized, it was with goods worth hundreds of thousands of Naira.

The delay in releasing the truck, the businessman stressed, could lead to litigation between his company and the owner of the seized goods.
Shittu said: “Since February 1 that the vehicle has been impounded, the quantum of loss that our firm has experienced is mind-blowing; principal among this is the breach of trust between us and our client.”

However, the Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Taskforce, Mr. Adebayo Taofeek, in his reaction, exonerated his office, saying that there was nothing like the use of policemen and thugs to apprehend the businessman’s truck
“There is nothing that connects the Taskforce with this issue. It was an issue between his company and the ministry,” Taofeek said in a text reply.