Group Slams FIRS Over Dame Jonathan’s Hotel Invasion

The Niger Delta Youth Coalition for Peace and Progress (NDYCPP) has urged the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to investigate the alleged illegal invasion and attempted sealing up of Aridolf Hotel in Bayelsa State by its officials.
It would be recalled that officials of FIIRS had on May 3, 2017, besieged the premises of Aridolf Hotel with armed policemen to seal the premises over claims of default in tax remittances.
The FIIRS officials reportedly disrupted the meeting of the NDYCPP and later alleged that its officials were attacked by the youth.
Acting Chairman of NDYCPP, Chief Henry Nabena, who addressed a press conference, last Saturday, condemned the raid and reports that NDYCPP members attacked FIIRS officials who raided the hotel.
He described media reports that FIIRS officials were attacked by militants as a smear campaign against NDYCPP and the management and proprietors of Aridolf, and therefore, challenged FIIRS to probe the operation.
Nabena noted that describing members of the youth group as militants was a falsehood that injured the integrity of the youth body, which is a group of non-violent youth working for advancement of peace in the Niger Delta.
“The FIIRS officials came with men in police uniforms without name tags on their uniforms and were well armed.
“Also among them were young men with chains and padlocks in their hands, making the operation highly suspicious as one with extortionist intentions.
“Interestingly, about that time the leadership of Niger Delta Youth Coalition for Peace and Progress was holding a very strategic peace and security meeting at the Hotel’s Conference Hall.
“The officials of FIRS burst into the meeting hall and disrupted it, embarrassing members of the coalition with their unruly and unethical conduct,” Nabena said.
He noted that the group is demanding unreserved apology following media reports credited to FIIRS alleging that some 50 militants attacked its officials at Aridolf, a hotel run by an NGO of Dame Patience Jonathan.
“The media publication orchestrated by the FIRS is totally untrue, baseless, malicious, provocative, vexatious, sensational and intended to malign the person of the former first family.
“The leadership of FIRS should caution their personnel on the essence of ethical and civil conduct in carrying out their official and legitimate duties.
“We urge the management of FIRS to retrain their line-managers towards carrying out their legitimate functions with best practices, professionalism and ethical compliance.
“They should shun the temptation of being cajoled or used by disgruntled politicians to witch-haunt their perceived political rivals,” Nabena said.
He noted that the FIRS as a revenue collecting agency of government is very central in the revenue drive but should carry out its duties with manifest transparency and accountability at all times.
He said that the youth group wants an investigation and would not allow the falsehood to stand even as it was considering seeking redress in the courts.
An FIIRS official who spoke on condition of anonymity said in a telephone chat from that there was ongoing enforcement across the country.
“There is need to first ascertain if the raid was by FIIRS officials in the first place because there is Internal Revenue service in every state, if that is cleared then they can lodge a complaint as FIIRS is structured to handle complains,” he said
The official urged the aggrieved group to take its complaints to the regional office of FIIRs in Port Harcourt.