Agege, one of the 20 councils in Lagos, is presently under scrutiny over a curious levy.

According to the photo of a letter circulating on social media, the council imposes a N10,500 fine on anyone who organises a party in the council without paying a “merriment levy” to the council’s purse.

In the letter, any defaulter who fails to pay the fine is threatened with a court case.


See photo:

http://newshelm.ng/lagos-council-where-residents-pay-govt-to-organise-parties/

cc lalasticlala mynd44

Lagos and its previous governments miss the key reason for their being a government in the first place

Yoruba and their way

Re: Lagos Council Where Residents Pay Govt To Organise Parties

Our attention has been drawn to a post on social media captioned : ‘Lagos Council Where Residents Pay Govt to Organise Parties’ in which Agege Local Government Area is said to collect levies from organisers of parties in the area.

From all indications, the motive behind the post was to disparage the council and portray its authorities as being insensitive to the plight of the common man. This may have been achieved following the backlash the Council received online.
But comment as they say is free but facts are sacred.
The facts are: In section 15 of Lagos State Local Government Approved Levies Law, all LGs and LCDAs are empowered to collect Merriment Levies from organisers of social functions or parties. And so there is no council in the state that does not collect Merriment Levies . For any party held in any part of Lagos State, an LG or LCDA must have granted the organizer(s) permit.

2. In the section, areas like Ikoyi, Victoria Island etc. are in category A+ and for every party, organizer(s) pay N20,000.00(Twenty-thousand naira) to the council the event place falls under
.
3. Under the same law, Agege is in category A, and for every party, organizer(s) are bound by law to pay N10, 000.00 as Merriment levy and N500, 00, which serves as levy for Radio/TV Licence .

4. This law also includes parties organised at event centres. In this case in Agege, the Council collects the levies from each event centre operator once weekly. This is based on the calculation that on the average, a party is held at an event centre in a week.

5. Meanwhile, for defaulters after they are found out, they are made to pay the levy and a fine of 10% of the sum, which is slammed on them. Served with
Entertainment Default Notice , defaulters are issued an e-bill where the levy and the fine are stated separately. In it, directive is given to the receiver(s) to pay the stated sum into one of the Council’s bank accounts in designated banks.

The above document is list of Approved Local Government Levies and asterisked are the Merriment and Radio/TV Licence Levies.