Youths from Niger Delta region, Monday, appealed to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to investigate alleged invasion of a hotel belonging to former First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, by its officials.
Officials of FIRS besieged the Aridolf Resort and Spars along Isaac Boroh Expressway, Bayelsa State, on May 3 and attempted to seal off the place following alleged N10million unpaid tax.
Youths from the hotel including workers reportedly intervened and stopped them from closing the hotel.
But youths under the auspices of the Niger Delta Youths Coalition for Peace and Progress (NDYCPP) said a thorough investigation must be carried out to determine the real motive of the officials.
The Acting Chairman, NDYCPP, Chief Henry Nabena, lamented that the officials disrupted their meeting and later claimed that they were attacked by the militants.
Nabena, who spoke in Yenagoa, said the report that FIRS officials were attacked by militants was a smear campaign against members of NDYCPP and proprietors of the hotel.
He said that describing members of the youth group as militants was falsehood against the integrity of a group of non-violent youths working for advancement of peace in the Niger Delta.
He said: “The FIIRS officials came with men in police uniforms without name tags on their uniforms and were well armed.
“Also among them were young men with chains and padlocks in their hands, making the operation highly suspicious as one with extortionist intentions.
“Interestingly, it was about that time the leadership of Niger Delta Youth Coalition for Peace and Progress was holding a very strategic peace and security meeting at the Hotel’s Conference Hall.
“The officials of FIRS burst into the meeting hall and disrupted it, embarrassing members of the Coalition with their unruly and unethical conduct”.
He demanded unreserved apology from FIRS for reports alleging that some 50 militants attacked its officials at the hotel.
“The publication orchestrated by the FIRS is totally untrue, baseless, malicious, provocative, vexatious, sensational and intended to malign the person of the former first family
“The leadership of FIRS should caution their personnel on the essence of ethical and civil conduct in carrying out their official and legitimate duties.
“We urge the management of FIRS to retrain their line-managers towards carrying out their legitimate functions with best practices, professionalism and ethical compliance .
“They should shun the temptation of being cajoled or used by disgruntled politicians to witch-haunt their perceived political rivals,” he said.
He advised that as a central revenue collector for the government, FIRS should discharge its duties with manifest transparency and accountability at all times.
He said that the youth group wanted an investigation and would not allow the falsehood to stand even if it involved seeking redress in the courts.
But an official of FIIRS, who spoke in confidence, said there was an ongoing nationwide enforcement of compliance.
He said: “There is need to first ascertain if the raid was by FIIRS officials in the first place because there is Internal Revenue service in every state, if that is cleared then they can lodge a complaint as FIIRS is structured to handle complains.”
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