Traders at the popular Ogbeogonogo market in Asaba, Delta State and tricycle, Keke, riders are currently confronting Oshimili South Council Revenue Officials over alleged multiple taxation and extortion.
It was gathered that Oshimili South Council Revenue Officials had in the last six months allegedly subjected the traders and Okada riders, including tricycle operators, to multiple taxation and extortion.
One of the aggrieved traders, who spoke to DAILY POST, Mrs. Eunice Nnamdi, said: “We are paying through our noses, we pay N1, 000 every day to these revenue collectors, painfully we pay another N1, 500 to different group of revenue collectors, and how much are we selling? These revenue collectors are frustrating us, we are appealing to the state government, and the council boss to come to our aid”.
The traders however lamented that even the rich and privileged in the society are not made to pay so much taxes and levies, adding that the situation currently at Ogbeogonogo market was not only pathetic, but hell.
They called on Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to intervene urgently to avoid bloody clashes with the revenue collectors who had allegedly subject them to tears on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, Keke riders have decried alleged unprofessional conduct by some policemen as well as Oshimili South Council Revenue Collectors, who illegally extort them of their hard-earned money even when they operate within the ambit of the law.
They claimed that the policemen, who claim to be attached “A” Division police station Asaba, do not only “waylay” them in Asaba and its environs but directly extort money from them.
A leader of the Keke riders in Asaba, Monday Chukwudi, who spoke to DAILY POST, said “We are not safe at all, everyday these policemen from “A” Division extort us N5000, 00 every day per one keke rider, the policemen do it with authority, if anybody fails, they drag the person to the station where the person will pay more”.
But the Acting Police Public Relations Officer in the state, ASP Chuks Orisewezie, who reacted to the allegation of extortion by policemen at “A” Division Police Station, said: “We have not received any report from any keke rider of extortion. Any policemen found in extortion will be dismissed, we will investigate the allegation, and I want to assure the keke riders that the police authorities will not take it kindly with any policeman caught in extortion”.
Also in his reaction, Mr. Uche Osadebe, Oshimili South Council Chairman, confirmed that the report of alleged extortion by revenue officials of the council had been received, disclosing that the officials involved in the act would soon be brought to book.
He said: “We, at the council, collect everyday is N200 and not N1,000, N1,500 or N2,000, the revenue officials are thieves, and they will be brought to book.”
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