No fewer than 75 persons have been arrested over alleged fake revenue collection and other various criminal offenses in Onitsha, Anambra state.
The suspects were nabbed at different locations by the state task force on collection of illegal tolls, stealing and extortion.
Parading the suspects before the traders, the Commissioner for Commerce, Markets and Wealth Creation, Christian Madubuko, regretted the huge millions of naira the government had lost to the criminals.
He insisted that government had placed ban on the collection of revenue in the state.
He said, “These criminals have defrauded Anambra state government of millions of naira. They brandish various fake authority payers purported to be issued by the state government.
“I want to state clear that Anambra state government has not authorized anybody to collect revenue on her behalf.
“They have their pay masters and we are picking them one after the other. These criminals have made Anambra state unsafe, chased out our customers and investors.
“How can you come to the market, buy goods, put it in a vehicle and these hoodlums would be tasking the trader at every point and collecting various sums of money to the unsuspecting trader thereby giving the state government bad image?”
The commissioner reiterated government readiness to sanitise the state and to ensure tax payers’ money and other revenues accruing to the state were used for the development of the state.
“We have a purposeful government whose policy trust is to build an enviable state that would be the first choice of investor destination in line with the mission and vision of the state government under Chief Willie Obiano,” he stressed.
He charged traders and the public to arrest anybody suspected to be acting as agent of government in revenue collection.
