Kogi govt regrets killing of truck driver by revenue collectors

THE Kogi State government on Thursday expressed regret over the killing of a truck driver by some of the people deployed to the highways to collect revenue on its behalf.

Besides, the government said the matter had been handed over to the state command of the Nigeria Police with the aim of ensuring justice.

The director general, Bureau of information and grassroots mobilisation, Alhaji Abdulkarim Abdulmalik, while speaking with our correspondent, said efforts had been put in place to prevent further occurrence of such development.

He said, “The government of Kogi State highly regretted the incident that happened on that fateful day, we are not happy about it because a life was lost, it was a development that saddened our heart.”

He, however, said there was the need to educate the members of the public on the need to pay tax and not attempt to always evade tax payment.

Abdulmalik corroborated the reports that the incident was caused as a result of the demand for tax by the revenue officers, adding that the situation degenerated when the truck driver refused to pay the appropriate amount.

He said, “On the fateful day, the revenue collectors were on the road to collect the revenue and the driver refused to cooperate but the collectors have the statutory mandate to collect the revenue,  in the process he went wild and attacked the revenue collectors along with his conductor.

“The motorists have to be educated to learn to comply with the laws of the land because there is no more room for shortchanging the state and the people, however,  the state really regretted it.”

It would be recalled that pandemonium had broken out on Wednesday on the Murtala Muhammed bridge, Jamata, when truck drivers blocked the highway following the killing of their colleague by the revenue collectors.