Imo LG election: ACN demands tax waivers for councillors

Category: Inside politics Published on Tuesday, 29 January 2013 05:00

As preparation for the April 27, 2013 local government election commences, chairman of the Imo State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Charles Ubah, has called on Governor Rochas Okorocha to grant tax waivers to councillorship aspirants.

Ubah while interacting with newsmen in his office Owerri, said the call became necessary because those aspiring to be councillors are not educated enough to pay tax and have no reliable sources of income required to pay the huge taxes required to contest the election.

He pointed out that the moment the electoral commission releases its time table for election, the state’s Board of Internal Revenue (BIR) will use the opportunity to fatten its pockets by demanding huge sums from people wishing to contest in the guise of boosting internally generated revenue of the state.

The ACN boss who described the present government as people’s government, said government should use this period to pay people who turned out in great numbers to vote for them back by

encouraging them to participate at elections at little or no cost.

He regretted that despite outcry on the huge monthly allocation to local government areas from federal allocation, there is no visible development because of high cost of running elections by the candidates.

He said due to the huge tax, the first thing a councillor or chairman will do in office after he wins election is to recover all the money he borrowed and then accumulate money for his exit.