A group of young men who claimed to be staff of Rivers State Internal Revenue Board said to be operating at the GRA junction axis of Port Harcourt-Aba Express Road, Rivers State, took to their heels after forcefully taken over the steering of a Hiab Truck from the driver and subsequently smashed the side glass of a moving commuter bus, leaving passengers injured with glass cuts.
The Hiab driver was ordered by one of the groups of revenue collectors to turn from the Kilimanjaro Fast Food side of the road, to the NDDC side of the high way, where they took over the truck on the express road, caused traffic build up and the subsequent accident, according to Hiab driver.
Noting the havoc that they have wreaked the so called revenue collectors abandoned the truck and took to their heels towards Elimgbu-link Road. The truck driver and others, followed the revenue collectors and when one of the collectors was apprehended by the truck driver he was brought back to the scene.
The scenario attracted the presence of soldiers on a military patrol van, who took over the matter and subsequently handed over the suspected illegal agent Task Force to another Anti crime police patrol van.
At the scene, the leader of police patrol team ordered Mr. Christian Njoku, from Nsuka a staff of Rivers State Board of Internal Revenue to be handcuffed and put inside their van. The patrol team took over the abandoned golf car by the task force team at the bus stop with Reg. No. ST281AAA and the Hiab truck with Reg. RUM 436 XB and the commercial bus with Reg. XZ 492 UWN.
Some eyewitnesses that spoke on the incident enumerated the number of accidents that have been caused by the so called task force team at GRA junction and how they make money on daily basis at the detriment of the poor masses.
They equally blamed the administration of Governor Rotimi Amaechi for not putting a proper mechanism in place to checkmate the activities of the numerous task forces that operate on the roads of the state to ascertain which one is really working for government.
It was not clear as at the time of filing in this report whether the Task Force or revenue team is from the Rivers State Board of Internal Revenue or not.
When The Newswriter visited the Rivers State Board of Internal Revenue for comments on the matter, the Board denied having such name, (Christian Njoku) in their register. They maintained that for the said Christian to have said he is an indigene of Nsuka, in Enugu State was enough indication that he was telling lies.
The board stressed that there was no way a non-indigene could claim to be staff of Rivers State Board of Internal Revenue. They affirmed of not collecting cash from the public, explaining that every payment is made through banks and teller or draft submitted to the board for issuance of receipts.
The Revenue Board made it clear that their staff do not jump into buses or patrol the roads in the name of revenue collection or generation, but only write or visit companies and discuss with them in respect of their taxes for onward payments, if they have not done so.
The Board enjoined the general public not to patronize touts but pay their taxes to the bank. ###
