Church workers beat, detain govt officials over N2m tax

on September 07, 2013 at 7:00 am in News

By DAUD OLATUNJI, Abeokuta

Pandemonium broke out in Ota, in Ado-Odo-Ota Local Government Area of Ogun state  when some Church workers allegedly beat and detained  five  officials of the state Internal Revenue Service  over N2 million tax duty.

Saturday  Vanguard gathered that trouble began when some officials of IRS stormed the premises of Living Faith Church Worldwide (Winners Chapel) to collect the accumulated tax duty owed by  Nursery and Primary schools owned by the church.

Addressing pressmen after a 40 seconds video of the pandemonium was played,  Chairman of IRS, Babajide Odunbanjo described the incident  which  occurred on Thursday as ugly.

Odunbanjo who was flanked by the Ogun State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Yusuph Olaniyonu and the State Attorney-General,  Abimbola  Ameredolu,  disclosed that the schools owed the government a sum of N2 million for  six years between 2003 – 2010.

He said that the authorities of the school, Kingdom Heritage Nursery School, Ota, had been served the notice of the tax duty but they had allegedly, been  ignoring  it .

According to him, officials of the state  Internal Revenue Service whose mission it was to enlighten the school on the compliance programme of the Revenue Service  were violently assaulted and later  unlawfully detained in the premises for a number  of hours.

“As a result of this incident, an officer of Ogun State Internal Revenue is currently hospitalised in Ilaro while others with minor injuries have been treated and discharged.

“Additionally, a number of assets belonging to Ogun state Internal Revenue Service were damaged beyond repair,” Odunbanjo said.

However,  efforts to get reactions from the Church authorities was unsuccessful as none of their officers could be reached asnat the time of filing this report.

Meanwhile, the state government has threatened to drag the authority of the school before court over assault  and unlawful detain.