The Niger Delta Youths Coalition for Peace and Progress
(NDYCPP) has urged the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIIRS) to investigate
attempted sealing up of Aridolf hotel in Bayelsa.
It will be recalled that the officials of FIIRS had on
May 3, 2017 besieged the premises of Aridolf Hotels 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 youths.
Chief Henry
Nabena, Acting Chairman of NDYCPP who addressed a press conference on 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 youths
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.
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