Abia Alerts On Fake Revenue Collectors

The Abia State Government has advised residents of the state
to be wary of unauthorised revenue collectors, who parade themselves with fake
identities in Aba and Umuahia.

The Secretary to the Abia State Government,  Prof. Mkpa Agu Mkpa, gave the advice  in Umuahia, recently.

According to him, “it is only the accredited consultant of
the state government that is allowed to collect all revenues and anybody found
to be violating the regulation of government is in for a very serious problem.
The state governor has repeatedly stressed this point.

“He has held several meetings with stakeholders, with
commissioners, and permanent secretaries, and with local government finance
officers to make this point. I will be surprised to hear that there is a
violation. “Any ministry, department or agency will be joking with fire if they
failed to comply strictly with government directives, he stated.

“And we call on all well-meaning Abians that if such people
come, please report to the nearest police or report to the governor’s office or
to the Office of the Secretary to the State Government or the chief of staff
and such individuals must be arrested because they do not have the authority to
do what they are doing,’’ he emphasised.

Mkpa said government was surprised to hear that some fake
revenue agents were still moving about harassing residents of Umuahia and Aba
to pay cash as revenue in spite of the recent government’s directive banning
such activity.

Governor Theodore Orji of Abia last week demobilised all
revenue agents engaged by the state’s ministries, departments and agencies and
directed that all revenues accruable to the state be paid into one bank
account.

Mkpa said: “Revenues are no longer collected in cash in
Abia; if anybody says pay cash, it means such a person is a fake.’’

He added that government decided to re-structure its revenue
collection system because the monthly internally generated revenue of the state
had continued to decline in spite of the presence of a significant number of
companies and other businesses in the state.

“Some states generate N1 billion to N2 billion monthly as
internally generated revenue. When Governor
Orji came on board in 2007, the state was generating between N200
million and N250 million monthly. “We have the Ariaria, Ekeoha, and Ahia Ohuru
markets as well as the industries in Aba and the markets in Umuahia and yet we
cannot collect a billion naira as revenue.

“That is why we felt there is something fundamentally wrong
with the procedure and approach for revenue collection,” he said.