Scrap dealers condemn multiple taxation in Ogun

The National Association of Scrap and Waste Dealers Employers of Nigeria (NASWDEN), has called on Ogun State government to as a matter of urgency find a lasting solution to the issue of multiple taxation in the State adding that the act is seriously affecting the cost of transacting business in the state.

The national president, Comrade John Obeh, who spoke in Abeokuta during a meeting with the state Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, said touts acting as state government agents were fond of charging exorbitant levies on trucks conveying scraps.

Obeh, accompanied by the state chairman of the association, Chief Lukman Onifade, and other executives, disclosed that he had already petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, over the development.

Based on the petition, he sought the intervention of security agents in checking extortion and other illegal activities of revenue collectors.

According to him, some groups under the guise of state environmental revenue collector have been molesting scrap merchants on the roads.

He identified Atoyo, Ogere and Sagamu highways as the flashpoints in the state where hoodlums forcefully stop trucks conveying scraps, beat up the drivers and extort money from them.

The national president claimed that up to N20,000 was often extorted from each truck, adding that the situation had made life unbearable for scrap dealers.

Obeh lamented that the issue of multiple levies had compounded ease of doing business in the state.

He said series of efforts to seek Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s intervention on the matter had allegedly been frustrated.

He said: “Our association is a registered trade union. We bring our petition to your office on behalf of our numerous members who have suffered unwarranted losses from these groups in the execution of illegal levies.

“This has forced our members out of business and those that remained with a great loss in the cause of carrying out their legitimate business. We don’t want to take laws into our hands.”

Responding, the police commissioner commended the scrap dealers for following due process and warned them against acts that could disrupt peace in the state.

Iliyasu, who described revenue collection as a civil issue, urged them to explore legal means, including dialogue and negotiation with the appropriate agencies and institutions.