The Benue State government on Monday confirmed the interception of two truckloads of palliatives in Benue State.
The palliatives were being conveyed from Adamawa to Anambra States respectively.
The Acting Executive Chairman of the Board of Internal Revenue Service, (BIRS), Mr Emmanuel Agema disclosed this during an interaction with journalists in his office in Makurdi.
The BIRS Chairman said the consignment was intercepted at Aliade in Gwer East local government area of the state, adding that three persons, who also extorted N200,000 from the drivers of the trucks have been arrested and handed over to the police and are cooling their heels in detention.
“We discovered a truck carrying palliatives from Adamawa to Anambra states was intercepted at Aliade in Gwer East local government area of Benue State and two of the drivers were beaten and one even had a dislocation, and one of the vehicle’s windscreen was broken and the sum of N200,000 was snatched from one of them.
“So we had to swing into action and we arrested three boys who are now in detention in the police custody. They are currently facing a thorough investigation.
Mr Agema who commended the efforts of Governor Hyacinth Alia in repositioning the Service, said Governor Alia has given him the mandate to go after hoodlums and miscreants carrying out all nefarious activities bothering on Illegal tax collection, by working together with Operation Zenda to flush out their activities, stressing that he is focused towards achieving the feat.
He said a total of 35 illegal tax collectors have been arrested and arraigned in court from the inception of Alia’s administration.
He said the board targeted to rake in N14.8 billion, but we overshoot the target and this year, we have a target of N16 billion as the state’s IGR, and we still hope to overshoot the target.
He said the board, with the help of both internal and external monitoring teams was able to block leakages to about N90 per cent.
Mr. Agema added that it is not business as usual with tax collection, stressing that what the board is collecting now is the cost of collection as it is in the law and when we get it we apply it judiciously.
