The agreement reached between Igbo traders and the Kwara State government over controversial tax matters may have suffered a set back.
This is because residents of Ilorin, the state capital, woke up on Monday to to notice that Igbo traders have shut their shops and businesses again, as they did recently when they protested alleged increment in taxes imposed by the Kwara state Internal Revenue Service, KWIRS.
The Chief of Staff to the Kwara State Governor, Mahe Abdulkadir, and Saadu Salaudeen, Senior Adviser/Counselor to Governor, had reportedly waded into the impasse between the two warring parties and resolved the contentious matter amicably.
However, contrary to expectations, the Igbo traders on Monday locked their shops and businesses across Ilorin, the state capital, to express their continued grievances on the matter.
A planned press conference called by the Igbo traders for Tuesday, by 11:30 am, to brief the public on the latest development, was also put off for unknown reasons.
DAILY POST could not ascertain what led to the breakdown of the earlier reconciliation reached between the two parties.
However, sources at the state revenue service office on Ahmadu Bello Way, Ilorin, revealed that the agency had rejected ‘a central pool’ mode of tax payment advanced by the Igbo traders.
“The revenue service is insisting that all Igbo traders and business owners must pay their tax individually and not as a collective body of traders,” the sources added.
The Igbo traders had insisted that they prefer the collective mode of tax payment as a body, which the revenue service vehemently rejected.
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