All shops and markets in Obollo-Afor, Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State were shut on Wednesday, following a peaceful protest over a purported selective taxation of haulage fees in the market.
The traders who locked their shops and came out in large numbers carried placards with different inscriptions alleging that the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (ESIRS) selected only Obollo-Afor market in the entire state to collect N25,000 haulage fee per truckload of goods loading and offloading in the market.
But the Chairman of ESIRS, Mr. Emmanuel Nnamani, in a letter to the traders, said that the haulage levy is not paid by traders buying or selling in the markets but is applicable strictly to truck drivers plying interstate routes.
Addressing the Udenu Local Government Council officials at the LG secretariat, where they marched to lay their complaints, Chairman of Obollo-Afor Market Traders Association, Mr. Charles Eze, lamented that trucks bringing food stuff, building materials, and other forms of commodities have refused to bring goods into Obollo-Afor market because of the haulage fee that they said is only obtained in in Obollo-Afor in the whole of Enugu State.
“The truck owners have diverted our goods to Orba, Enugu-Ezike, Nsukka, and Orie-Igboeze, asking us to come and pick our goods there because they don’t pay such levies there except in Obollo-Afor. And so, we are asking, why Obollo alone?”
Eze said that the traders have no problem with the e-ticketing of the state government, which he said they are paying, but that it is abnormal and an act of injustice for haulage taxation to take place only in Obollo-Afor in the whole of Enugu State.
“This levy has made trucks disappear from Obollo-Afor for more than two months now since it started. The truck drivers said they don’t pay such haulage fees in any other part of Nsukka, or Enugu. We asked the government to come let’s discuss it, but they refused. We have discussed this with the Chairman of ESIRS, Ekene Nnamani, but he refused and asked his people to continue collecting the haulage.
“This is the reason we closed shops for protest because truck operators bringing goods for us have refused to come to Obollo-Afor, and it has crumbled the Obollo-Afor market and hunger has set in. We are asking Governor Peter Mbah to come to our rescue. We are not saying that we won’t pay levies, but let it be fees that are equally obtained in other places. We are ready to pay any amount of levy that is obtained in Akwata, Ogbete, Nsukka, Orba, or in any other market in the state, but let Obollo-Afor not be an exception or singled out for selective taxation,” Eze said. Government.
Other market leaders in Obollo-Afor market who joined in the protest, such as Chief James Odo of Food Stuff dealers and Chief Damian Nwodo of Electrical and Electronic dealers, also narrated the ugly experience the haulage taxation has imposed on the dealers.
Responding on behalf of Udenu Local Government Council, Secretary to the Local Government, Mr. Chika Aroh, stated that they have scheduled a meeting with representatives of ESIRS over the matter, where they will find out if the tax is only taking place in Obollo-Afor.
“But for now, we will tell them to stop the collection. After the Thursday meeting, we will inform you. Our promise is that we will remedy the matter,” Aroh promised.
