From Obinna Odogwu, Awka
Two revenue collectors working with the Unified Hybrid Enforcement Team (UHBET) have been arrested by the Anambra State Internal Revenue Service (AiRS) for assaulting a driver in Onitsha.
A viral video shows the two members of the enforcement unit dragging the driver out of his vehicle for allegedly evading tax in the state.
Chairman of AiRS Dr Greg Ezeilo, while parading the duo at the organisation’s headquarters in Awka, on Monday evening, said that the conduct of the two enforcers was against the operational code handed to them.
Ezeilo said that what the UHBET members would have done was to take a video or photo of the vehicle for legal action instead of handling the driver roughly.
Narrating what transpired, the AiRS boss said that the driver was flagged down by the team and after his profile was checked on the AiRS portal, the men discovered that the driver owed the state the sum of N37,000.
He said that when the driver was asked to pay his tax, he attempted to speed off, thereby provoking the men to assault him in the manner they did.
Ezeilo, however, said that the enforcers’ conduct did not go down well with the organisation and the state government and that’s why they were arrested.
The Chairman apologised to the governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, and the general public saying that such conduct would not happen again.
He also appealed to investors and business owners in the state to always pay their taxes when due to forestall future recurrence.