“Produce receipt of tax you claimed I paid” – Agbaje dares Fashola

The Governorship candidate of the Peoples Demo­cratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, has chal­lenged Governor Baba­tunde Fashola, to present the receipt of the “make-up tax” he (Agbaje) purportedly paid after being publicly accused of evading land use charges on his business premises.

Agbaje, who last week, denied paying N500,000 after the governor went to town with the allegation, said neither he nor the phar­maceutical company he founded, had taken such a step.

Fashola had, last week­end, alleged that despite contesting the announce­ment he made on January 27, the PDP governor­ship candidate had paid N500,000 of the N1.6 mil­lion reportedly owed from the backlog of three years’ land use charge tax.

“Good enough, Fashola is a lawyer; so, he knows the maxim that, he that al­leges must prove.’ So, I challenge the governor to show Lagosians the re­ceipt issued to either me or JayKay Pharmacy since February when he told his first lie,” Agbaje said at the weekend in a statement is­sued by his Director of Pub­licity, Felix Oboagwina.

Agbaje said he also found it strange that the governor could equate an individual with a corporate entity.

His words: “It is basic law, civil, contract, crimi­nal, that an individual is dif­ferent from corporate body, and one cannot benefit from or suffer for what the other has done.

“And I shall continue to wonder why a Senior Ad­vocate of Nigeria (SAN) would insist on roping me in on what a company has purportedly done, even though he knows quite well what the law says.”

According to Agbaje, JayKay Pharmacy had maintained that it did not owe the government land use charges.

The candidate said the company had noticed overbilling and had written a protest letter to the Lagos State authorities, and was waiting for govern­ment’s response to the mat­ter.

Continuing he said, “There is no truth in this latest piece of misinformation that the Governor is spread­ing around. He lied again, giving the impression that my company paid money after his initial outburst and his first lie.

“Jaykay Pharmaceuticals has not paid a kobo since the day Fashola launched his initial allegation. To say that I have now paid N500,000 is a lie.

“My company sticks to the facts contained in its initial publication, which encapsulated its reaction to the governor’s initial false­hood”.

#agbaje