RIVERS State Government has stormed the Port Harcourt head office of Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, over alleged tax default totaling N600 million.
Speaking through its Director of Corporate Affairs, Ibitoye Abosede, the commission said: “The issue has been amicably resolved. It is just a communication gap. You can observe that there is nothing like sealing off the headquarter’s premises. Normalcy has returned to the commission’s activities.”
Meanwhile, Adaoge Norteh, Executive Chairman, Rivers State Internal Revenue Service, RIRS, whose enforcement team stormed the commission, said yesterday that the arrears represented un-remitted withholding tax accumulated since 2013.
According to him: “We stormeded the place. We have not sealed it off completely. Even as we speak they are working. We went there but we pulled out yesterday after intervention of so many persons with the promise that they (NDDC) would pay. So we gave them a few days. If they do not meet our demand within the agreement they consented to, if they don’t respond on time, we will have no other option than to go back and seal off the place completely.
“They owe this money and we have been on it for a very long time. What they agreed that they owe is nothing less than N600 million. They have not responded to any entreaty. We have gone round to get them to do it, but they have not. That is where the trouble started.”
