Don’t attribute toddler’s death to us, EIRS tells Edo residents

….sympathises with deceased family

By Idahosa Moses | Benin

The Executive Chairman of the Edo State Internal Revenue Service (EIRS), Mr Bankole Balogun, on Wednesday, exonerated the EIRS from the incident that led to the recent death of a toddler in the state.

He argued that the peddlers of such information are those who have refused to accept the leadership of Senator Monday Okpebholo as the governor of the state.

Recall that a two-year-old girl on Wednesday last week, evening was crushed to death by a commercial driver who had a clash with officers of the Edo State Public Safety Response Team (PSR) while driving at the Ring Road, Benin.

An eyewitness, who craved anonymity, said the PSR agents attempted to seize the steering wheel of the moving vehicle, causing the driver to lose control.

The bus then veered off the road and rammed into a roadside Point of Sales (PoS) kiosk where the young girl and her mother were standing, killing the child instantly.

This ugly incident has since been wrongly linked to the EIRS.

ALSO READ: Edo: Road accidents claim 33 lives in two months – FRSC

Speaking on the matter and other sundry issues in the state while receiving the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council who paid a courtesy call on him on Wednesday, Mr. Balogun sympathized with the deceased family.

He said EIRS is not responsible for the death of the toddler because the PSR is not his staff, and neither did he send anyone to collect revenue for them.

Balogun wondered why would anyone ever attribute such to EIRS.

“As it is right now, there is a lot of unfortunate political postulations here and there just in typically to bring down a democratically elected government of the state.

“People are not happy to accept the will of the people and carry on with their lives rather they look for all sorts of dangerous ways of creating problems in public politics.

“You alluded very rightly to a very unfortunate situation that happened a week or two weeks ago involving somebody who was, evading arrest and who, sadly, was the positive factor for the loss of a child.

“Now, that has absolutely nothing to do with the revenue service of an Edo State. Absolutely nothing.

“So, but why would anybody ascribe that to revenue service if not that there are, some sort of political undertones,” Balogun said.

He also denied increasing taxes for the private schools in the state noting that, issues of increment in taxation have to do with the approval of the state house of assembly.

“And similarly, you know, there’s some new story, going around now that the revenue service, has unilaterally increased taxation in private schools but there’s absolutely no truth in that.

“And I want to thank Mr Benjamin and our legal advisor for the sterling role that they played, you know, this morning on your station, to dispel this.

“Taxation and tax law is governed by statute. It’s governed by law. So we cannot arbitrarily get up here today and say we want to tax you. Every tax is itemized by law.

“So, the tax that schools, individuals and private enterprises are being taxed is governed by law. There is a coding, there’s a formula for that.

“So perhaps maybe the situation that some of these people that are facing is because the revenue service is now alive to its responsibilities and chasing after people who have been under-assessed or under have been declaring or have been evading or avoiding tax.

“They now turn it around to say that we are arbitrally. The only person that can increase taxes for the state is the state house of assembly on the approval by the executive governor of the state looking at the federal tax laws.

“So, it’s a whole conundrum. So we Bankole Balogun and his directors and senior people here don’t send people outside and say, you know, we are increasing tax.

“No, it doesn’t work like that. And they themselves know that it doesn’t work like that but in order to create panic, confusion and disaffection, which as far as I’m concerned is poor journalism and it has the potential to create unnecessary havoc” Balogun said.

Earlier, the chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Edo State Council, Dr Festus Alenkhe, commended the leadership of the EIRS for what they are doing in the state.

He also appealed to the leadership of the EIRS to educate their staff on how to go about their revenue drive so that it will be a win-win thing for the tax payers and the government.

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