Retrain Your Line-managers Towards Carrying Out Their Legitimate Functions, Group Tells FIRS Boss
Officials of FIIRS had on May 3, 2017 besieged the premises of Aridolf Hotel with armed policemen to seal the premises over claims of default in tax remittances.
The FIRS officials, according to the group, reportedly disrupted the meeting of the NDYCPP and later alleged that its officials were attacked by the youths.
Acting Chairman of the NDYCPP, Chief Henry Nabena, who addressed a press conference on Saturday, condemned the raid and reports that NDYCPP members attacked FIIRS officials who raided the hotel.
The NDYCPP leader described media reports that FIIRS officials were attacked by militants as a smear campaign against NDYCPP and the management and proprietors of Aridolf and therefore challenged FIRS to probe the operation.
He noted that, describing members of the youth group as militants was a falsehood that injured the integrity of the youth body which is a group of non violent youths working for advancement of peace in the Niger Delta.
"The FIRS officials came with men in police uniforms without name tags on their uniforms and were well armed".
"Also among them were young men with chains and padlocks in their hands, making the operation highly suspicious as one with extortionist intentions".
"Interestingly, about that time the leadership of Niger Delta Youth Coalition for Peace and Progress was holding a very strategic peace and security meeting at the Hotel’s Conference Hall".
"The officials of FIRS burst into the meeting hall and disrupted it, embarrassing members of the Coalition with their unruly and unethical conduct", Nabena said.
The group, he noted, is demanding unreserved apology following media reports credited to FIRS alleging that some 50 militants attacked its officials at Aridolf, a hotel run by an NGO of Dame Patience Jonathan.
"The media publication orchestrated by the FIRS is totally untrue, baseless, malicious, provocative, vexatious, sensational and intended to malign the person of the former first family".
"The leadership of FIRS should caution their personnel on the essence of ethical and civil conduct in carrying out their official and legitimate duties".
"We urge the management of FIRS to retrain their line-managers towards carrying out their legitimate functions with best practices, professionalism and ethical compliance".
"They should shun the temptation of being cajoled or used by disgruntled politicians to witch-haunt their perceived political rivals", Nabena said.
Noting that the FIRS as a revenue collecting agency of government is very central in the revenue drive, Nabena cautioned that it should carry out its duties with manifest transparency and accountability at all times.
NDYCPP boss said the youth group wants an investigation and would not allow the falsehood to stand even as it was considering seeking redress in the courts.
Speaking with an FIRS official who spoke on condition of anonymity in a telephone chat, he said that there was ongoing enforcement across the country.
"There is need to first ascertain if the raid was by FIRS officials in the first place because there is Internal Revenue service in every state. If that is cleared then they can lodge a complaint as FIRS is structured to handle complains", he said.
The official urged the aggrieved group to take its complaints to the regional office of FIRs in Port Harcourt.
Source News Express
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