By Praise Chinecherem
The Executive Director (Operations) of the Anambra State Internal Revenue Service, Dr. Christian Madubuko, has accused state government hired revenue collection vendor, Bigly of recruiting criminal elements as revenue collectors.Madubuko, alleged that employees of the firm were caught with Tramadol, Mkpulumili and other narcotics by operatives of the Nigeria Police, and that agents of the company were also caught issuing manual receipts for revenue collected at Anaku junction in Ayamelum local government area of the state.
The AIRS boss also disclosed that the contractual agreement reached the firm reached with the Anambra state government, mandated it employ Point Of Sale (POS) machines for its transactions to enable the government to determine how much it realised from revenue collections and how much percentage it would be given.According to him, the firm (Bigly) breached the agreement as its agents collected revenues in cash and also issued manual receipts as against Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s authorisation that there would be no cash transactions and that revenue collections would be done digitally.Madubuko further explained that the decision to adopt digital payment system was taken to avoid double taxation.
He insisted that the Soludo administration would not return to manual revenue collection as some elements have amassed stupendous wealth through such illegal means and at the expense of the general public.Madubuko maintained that if Bigly must work with the Board of Internal Revenue, he must work with POS and there would be no manual collection anywhere to enable government to know how much he realised and how much he would be paid based on percentage as agreed.
On allegations of diverting revenues in Ayamelum area, Madubuko challenged his accusers to produce evidence of his revenue diversions and not peddle false allegations against him.Meanwhile, a pressure group under the aegis of Concerned Anambra Citizens (CAC) has raised the alarm over alleged irregularities in the Anambra Internal Revenue Service (AIRS) under the leadership of Mr. Christian Madubuko.The group called on Governor Chukwuma Soludo to intervene urgently in allegations it characterises as “intimidation, frame-up and sheer propaganda” allegedly employed by the AIRS leadership to frustrate the efforts of revenue partners of the government.CAC, in a statement signed by its president, Obi Mbamalu, specifically accused the leadership of the state revenue service, under Madubuko, of employing what it says are “illegitimate means” that have frustrated and constrained the operations of revenue partners that are duly authorised to operate as such by the state government.
The group urged Governor Chukwuma Soludo to look into the activities at the inland revenue agency in order to checkmate the alleged impediments to the work of the revenue partners, threatening that, if this is not done, it might have to embark on public protest against what it called “injustice against the youths of the state.”According to Mbamalu, “We cannot but draw the attention of the Governor of Anambra State, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, to the need to call Mr. Christian Madubuko to order as he has employed ‘a kill them before they grow’ tactic of putting other revenue collectors out of the system.””It is worrisome that only yesterday, he connived with some security agents to arrest and parade legitimate workers of (one of the partners) under the premise that they were illegal revenue collectors.”
The statement said that Madubuko had been using members of the state’s Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra, OCHA, Brigade to intimidate the personnel and agents of certain revenue partner companies “in order to advance the interest of a company he is fronting.””We, therefore, call on the governor to use his good offices to forestall (sic) this man from putting a dent on the numerous great strides he is taking in Anambra, especially in the area of youth development, which Madubuko and his group are spoiling by arresting and labeling them as criminals and touts.
