The Chairman, Rivers Transport Co-operative Union Ltd, Port Harcourt, Mr. Sunday Binoye has called on the Rivers State Government to check multiple taxation and illegal collection of fees from traders and commercial transport service operators in the state.
Binoye made the call in a chat with The Tide Correspondent in his office in Port Harcourt last week.
He says the activities of fake agents who claim to be working for government are making things difficult for the common citizens including transport operators as they impound property and vehicles indiscriminately over car stickers, Community tickets and other levies.
The Chairman hinted that some local government Councils, in a bid to generate revenue have constituted taskforces to impound vehicles framed a flimsy charge in order to extort money from the drivers, alleging that sometimes the Local Government connive with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and their agents to carry out these nefarious activities.
“These group of people also connived to monopolise the public facilities built by the state government for the use of the public and charge all manner of levies to enrich themselves.
According to him, most of the Motor Parks built by the Rivers State Government have been taken over by the local government councils and their NURTW cohorts who employed the services of some hoodlums to do the dirty job, thereby depriving the state government from generating revenue from that sector.
“They sometimes create loading bays outside the motor parks and claim that those bays are parks handed over to them by the local government”, he said.
He explained that the local governments are not empowered to collect taxes from any mechanically propelled trucks because in the three-tiers of government, government taxes have been split from Federal, state and local governments.
“Local Governments, he said are meant to register and collect taxes from marriages, cemeteries, public conveniences, off and onshore liquor  licences among others, but they now encroach into the state government’s area of jurisdiction”, he said.
He called on the state government to look into these illegalities and stop all these officials who engage touts in collaboration with the NURTW to extort money from motorists, adding that this creates an enabling environment for business to flourish and give those voiceless citizens of the state a sense of belonging.
It would be recalled that Rivers State Government has recently dissolved all such revenue agents.

Collins Barasimeye