SCORES of journalists and tax officials were, on Thursday, assaulted by mobile policemen attached to Fenog, an oil services company based in Warri, Delta State.
The assault came on the heels of the visit of an enforcement team of the Delta State Board of Internal Revenue (DBIR) to seal the firm for evading tax.
DBIR Director of Enforcement, Ogege Jewel, led his officials and journalists to the company’s yard when they were assaulted by the police guards keeping surveillance of the premises.
Speaking with journalists after the assault, Jewel said: “The law frowns seriously at obstruction of tax enforcement.
We came here to seal the firm on conviction by a court for failure to turn in 2015 end-of-year-returns. The company was served notice to seal by the court.
They know the implications and were about issuing a cheque to pay the cash penalty when a self-identified lawyer to the company advised them not to do the needful.
The only option left was to seal the company, but their large team of police guards, to the approval of management, pursued us out of their yard, even assaulted one of the journalists with us. We will report back to the court to take appropriate action,” he threatened. Attempts made to speak to officials of the company were unsuccessful.
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