Market leaders arrested for diverting government revenue in Anambra
By Raymond Ozoji, Awka
Operation Show Your Receipts for traders in all markets in Anambra state is beginning to yield expected results as government enforcement team led by Dr. Christian Madubuko has commenced visitations to markets on revenue drive.
One of such markets visited was New Auto Parts Motorcycle Market Nnewi, where the Chairman and Secretary were arrested for questionable transactions and diversion of revenues meant for government into their private pockets.
Madubuko who spoke with our correspondent exclusively, said they would visit all the markets in Anambra state to recover government money and to fish out all revenue thieves pretending to be working for the state government.
He said from investigations, some traders paid their levies but there were no evidence of payments. He also said that the market leaders collected money from attachment shops but the money were not remitted to government, adding that the market leaders could not explain the transactions, hence they were apprehended by the Department of State Services (DSS) .
Again, Madubuko pointed out that the leaders were blocking government enumeration process in the market and that there was need to address a lot of anomalies in the markets which he said was the remote reason for the Operation Show Your Receipts for traders in all the markets in Anambra state.
On the issue of touts wearing AIRS uniforms in Onitsha and other parts of the state to intimidate Ndi-Anambra into giving them physical cash after confiscating their vehicles illegally, Madubuko said such people were revenue thieves and they do not work for the state government.
He said the state government does not have any revenue agents in Onitsha; that any person or group of persons claiming to be collecting revenue for Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo is a thief and should be arrested without further delay.
Madubuko who told our correspondent that he has been bombarded with phone calls concerning some individuals who operated at Head Bridge Onitsha, intimidating and forcing unsuspecting Ndi-Anambra to pay them in cash after confiscating their vehicles.
He said government was not aware of such people and that whatever they were doing in the name of AIRS officials was completely false and illegal as government doesn’t have revenue agents in Onitsha.
Madubuko therefore maintained that the only place government deployed AIRS staff on revenue drive was at Nnewi where he is personally leading the enforcement teams and that they began enforcement since Wednesday last week; that from Nnewi, they will move to other places to enforce the Operation Show Your Receipts.
