The Edo
State Board of Internal Revenue (BIR) at the early hours of yesterday locked
the administrative offices of the Benin airport for claim that the airport has
failed to pay the PAYE (Pay As You Earn) tax which were removed from the
salaries of workers of the airport.
The Board
of Internal Revenue claimed it had a court order before it carried out its
actions. However things took another surprising turn as the Manager of the
Benin airport, Mr Sunday Ayodele, allegedly locked the entrance and exit to the
airport.
An Arik Air
plane had already landed that morning before the incident. As a result of
locking the gates of the airport, passengers were unable to leave the airport
and those leaving for Benin to Lagos and Abuja were also unable to enter into
the airport.
Reacting to
the incident, Chairman of Edo Board of Internal Revenue (EBIR), Chief Oseni
Elamah claimed that BIR only shut down the airport’s administrative offices and
not the gates of the airport. He claimed that the airport management took that
action to blackmail BIR.
“It was a
deliberate attempt to blackmail us. It was their office we sealed, and not the
gates,” Elamah said. The tax owed by the airport is claimed to be about 15
million naira
FAAN’s
spokesman Yakubu Dati also confirmed the development and claimed that it was an
invasion of the Benin airport. He also claimed that avenues of communication
should have been exploited before BIR took the laws into their hands.
“We learnt
this morning that some people belonging to the Edo State Inland Revenue Service
early this morning shut the Benin Airport over what our staff described as
non-payment of taxes.
“This is
coming to us as rude shock, because they could have explored all lines of
dialogue instead of just taking the laws into their hands.” he said.
“To close
the airport is not good for the security and safety of the airport environment.
We are appealing to passengers to bear with the situation as we are making
efforts to resolve the issue. But we are disturbed that such a development
could have been resolved without taking laws into their own hands.”
“We are
worried that despite the enabling law setting up FAAN, which exempts it from
paying taxes and tenement rates, the Edo State Inland Revenue Service went
ahead to close the airport.
“We enjoy
cordial relationship with the state government, and we are saddened that this
is happening. The matter will soon be resolved.” he said.
Edo State
governor Adams Oshiomole reacting to the situation, arrest later made of the
Chairman of the EBIR, and the thuggery displayed by the manager of the Benin
airport said:
“The Edo
State government did not seal up the airport, the revenue board staff went
there peacefully to do their job. The authority of the revenue board went to
serve an ‘order’ on the administrative office of FAAN, it was done in a way to
ensure that it does not affect the operations of the airport knowing that the
airport is a public place and as much as we want to collect taxes due to
government, we don’t want to inflict pain on travellers who are not a party to
the issue of tax evasion.”
“However,
when the Manager’s office was sealed up, he in turn in order to attract
national attention or dramatize the issue, decided on his own to shut down the
airport. As you know, his office is several hundred meters outside the airport
and the sealing up of his office will not in any way affect the airport. So
just to put it on record, the Edo State government did not shut down the
airport.” he said.
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Benin airport was shut down for non-payment of taxes