By Suleiman Anyalewechi

Palpable anxiety and apprehension at the weekend  gripped the leaderships of the various markets  in Abia State.

Their fears were premised on the high possibilities of being swept out of office by the State authorities who are not comfortable with their unserious attitude towards the collection of Government’s statutory annual levies/rents.

The Dr Alex Otti-led Administration appears to be running out of patience with a majority of them, and is believed to be set to ring some changes if their lackluster  performance continues.

The authorities are said not to be amused by the lip service the Market leaderships are paying to the important issue of harnessing and collecting Government statutory levies and rents.

The nonchalant attitude of most of the leaderships to mobilise traders and other business entities under their bait is believed to have cost the Government hugely in its internally generated revenue projections.

With over 50 high profile markets, analysts believe that the internally generated revenue profile of Abia state should be hovering around N10 billion and N12 billion monthly, with the markets contributing about 40% of the revenue.

But the hugely endowed Abia has sadly remained one of the states in the country which internally generated revenue do not exceed N1 .5 billion monthly.

Worried about the ugly situation, the Abia State authorities have moved to plug perceived loopholes and leakages in its internally generated revenue collection exercise.

Only on Friday, June 14, the leaderships of the various markets were summoned to a crucial meeting with the duo of Dr Isaac Chimezie the Commissioner for Trade, Investment and Commerce and the Chairman of the State’s Board of Internal Revenue BIR Professor Ogbonnaya Udechukwu in Umuahia the State capital.

Addressing the about 45 Market leaders during the meeting,  Dr Chimezie expressed Government’s disappointment with the poor level of traders’ compliance with their statutory obligations to the system.

He reminded the traders of the importance of payments of taxes, levies and rents to the sustenance of Governments all over the world .

He noted that without payments of taxes and levies, no Government will be able to meet its obligations to the citizenry in terms of provisions of infrastructural facilities and other essential services.

The Abia State Commissioner for Commerce equally expressed surprise that even after slashing the annual statutory levies from N22 000 to N 19,500 annually, most of the traders still refuse to pay

Dr Chimezie admonished that the only way the traders and other taxable residents will show their support and cooperation to the Government is for them to abide by their mandatory obligations to the  system.

He warned that Government will no longer tolerate a situation whereby the citizenry will continue to evade payments of their levies and taxes .

He directed the President General  of Abia State Almagamated Traders Association ASMATA, Chief Alphonsus Udeigbo, who is also the Chairman of the Eziukwu Market to monitor revenue collection regime at the various markets.

Specifically, the Commerce Commissioner empowered the ASMATA boss to liaise with the leaderships of the other markets to introduce the model which has made the Eziukwu Road Market to be the only market in the state that has shown seriousness in collecting Government’s statutory revenues from the traders .

Dr Chimezie  also directed that all machineries should be put in place to ensure the collection of the 2024 Government statutory levies at the various markets within a reasonable time frame.

The ASMATA President assured the authorities that he will work round the clock to not only  introduce and monitor the Eziukwu Market revenue collection model at the markets, but also ensure that there is a remarkable improvement in the level of compliance.

Appointed on interim basis about nine months ago, The Source findings have revealed that the performance of most of the Market leaderships have been far below average .

Most of them, are still deeply rooted in the infamous revenue collection of the old order which promoted more individual interests than those of the authorities.

For one, over the past years, revenue collections at Abia State markets were appropriated by top Government functionaries using same to compensate cronies and family members.

With the payments of miserable sums to the State coffers at the beginning of every fiscal year, the cronies and family members will proceed to collect several billions of Naira from the markets the whole year.

The Source findings, also, revealed authoritatively that while a few of the Market Leadership are hamstrung by constraints beyond their capacity, a good number of them are yet to wean themselves of the control of the forces that manipulated the system to enrich themselves at the expense of the State before now .

Most of the them appear to be more interested in the pursuit of   personal lucre that accrue to them from road side and other illegal business entities than working to collect Government’s levies.

Although the duo of Prof.Udechukwu BIR boss and the Commerce Commissioner did not  expressly state what the authorities will do in the event of further  complacency in collecting Government’s levies,  sources in the know have revealed that most of the market leaderships may be shoved aside.

“The fact is that most of the leaderships of the markets have been self serving and have paid lip service to the protection of Government’s interests.

“This has led to a serious loss in Government’s statutory revenue .There is no serious system anywhere that will continue to condone a situation whereby people who are to protect its interests are the ones sabotaging them .

“It is left for the markets leaders to do their jobs  and or the system will look for those who will serve the interests of the people”, one source stated

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

The Academic Staff Union Of Universities, ASUU, Abia State University, ABSU, Chapter, has disputed  claims by Abia State Government that it is not owing the Staff of the Institution.

The Source reports that Governor Alex Otti had on Friday, June 21 ,2024, during a Media chat, insisted that the State Government has been religious in meeting its monthly payment obligations to the State workforce, including staffers of the University and other MDAs .

Specifically, Governor Otti,had noted that as at the time of the Media interaction (Friday night), legitimate staff members of the  University would have gotten alerts from their various banks for April and May salaries.

But, in a swift reaction, the ASUU -ABSU, on Saturday, June 22, faulted the claim, and cautioned against the continued politicization of  the issue of salary payments in the institution.

In a statement issued jointly by Dr Chidi Mba and Dr Victor Obisike, Chairman and Secretary respectively, the umbrella body of ABSU teaching staff, called for a regime of transparency and accountability in the handling of the issue of salary payments to the University workers.

Following below is the ASUU-ABSU full statement

“Following the recent statement from the Government of Abia State that all Abia State University (ABSU) staff have received their April and May salaries, we, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, ABSU Chapter, wish to clarify and state the actual situation regarding salary payments in the University.

“Contrary to Government’s announcement and news circulating in the social media, the reality is starkly different. It is only a handful of Staff who have their salary accounts with commercial banks that have received their April salary and fewer have received their May salary. Very alarming are instances where the few staff who received their May salary did not receive their April salary in the same bank.

“Painfully, some of the Staff who received either April or May salary had unexplained deductions ranging between eight (8) to Fifty Three (53) Thousand Naira made on the paid one month salary at source.

“Moreover, NONE of the majority of the staff whose salaries account are domiciled with the ABSU Microfinance bank and teaching staff of Abia State University Teaching Hospital has received any payments for either April or May and this has caused significant financial strain, panic and uncertainty among the Staff.

“With this staggered payment system, the Unions in the university cannot ascertain the status of their Check-off dues which is usually deducted at the source of payment.

“Furthermore, it is important to highlight that our 11months outstanding salary arrears, remain unpaid. Despite repeated assurances, not a single month of these arrears has been settled.

“We urge the Government officials to refrain from politicizing the issue of salary payments in ABSU as people’s health, family needs and other critical issues like workers productivity are dependent on it.

“It is imperative that the government acknowledges the financial hardships faced by the university staff and takes immediate action to ensure that all outstanding salaries, including the arrears, are paid promptly and in full.

“We seek transparency and accountability from the Government in handling this matter and hope for a swift resolution to alleviate the financial distress faced by the staff of ABSU.

“We want to use this opportunity to appeal to our dear Governor and Visitor to our University, His Excellency, Dr Alex Chioma Oti, OFR, who means well for the only State-owned University, and has left a standing instruction to pay all workers of the State government not later than 28th of every month, to quickly look into this issue by calling the attention of the concerned officials, so as not to truncate his good intentions for the State workforce.”