The APC in Enugu State had in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mrs. Kate Offor, on Sunday, said Ugwuanyi should recover funds allegedly stolen by his predecessor, Sullivan Chime, instead of going ahead with plans to implement an aggressive tax policy to address the drop in the state’s federal allocation.
However, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Uwakwe Abugu, said the prosecution of persons alleged to have looted the state’s treasury was not the governor’s job.
Abugu said the APC was “irrational” for asking the governor to assume the position of a law enforcement agent by going after the alleged treasury looters.
He said, “As irrational as the charge appears, the APC would also want the governor to become lawless and assume the position of a law enforcement agent when it urged him to go after those it said had stolen billions of naira from the state treasury.
“We want to point it out to Mrs. Offor that it is not the responsibility of the governor to prosecute anyone who has committed any offence against the state but the responsibility of the relevant law enforcement agencies.”
Stressing that the opposition party in the state could not dictate to the governor, Abugu said, “Another aspect of the Enugu APC statement that beats any imagination is its wishful thinking in trying to dictate to Governor Ugwuanyi how to run his administration.
“Whereas the governor and his team have long since swung into action to dramatically raise the government’s Internally Generated Revenue through various sources, including taxes, the opposition party wants him to abandon this noble course of action and rather pursue only actions for the recovery of funds allegedly stolen by the past administration in the state.”
Abugu said Ugwuanyi’s tax policy was consistent with that of the APC-led Federal Government.
Explaining further, he said, “While Mrs. Offor was busy attacking Governor Ugwuanyi for proposing to raise more funds through taxes in the 2016 Appropriation Bill presented to the House of Assembly, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, was explaining to Nigerians how the Federal Government formed by the APC would within the same fiscal year of 2016, raise trillions of naira from taxes as a measure to cushion the effects of the crashing oil prices on the nation’s economy.”
Abugu urged the Enugu State chapter of the APC to join hands with the state government to get all individuals, corporate bodies and agencies to pay their taxes.
