Landlords in Onitsha South Local Government Area of Anambra State, have decried what they termed “multiple levies” extorted from them by illegal revenue collectors.

Speaking under the aegis of Fegge Landlords Association, they lamented that touts and revenue collectors, claiming to be working for the state government invade their community on a daily basis to collect sanitation, property and development levies, a situation they said, did not go down well with them.

The spokesman of the association, Chief Ignatius Agabarugo, who spoke on behalf of the group, made the lamentations at the local government secretariat on Tuesday, during an interactive forum with the deputy governor of Anambra State, Dr Onyekachukwu Ibezim.

Agabarugo said, “We are ready to cooperate with the state government in the area of ending these extortions that have become a menace on us. The extortions of landlords by touts and illegal revenue collectors have become unbearable. Whenever a landlord is carrying out any renovation on his building, the touts will come to demand for various amount of money.

“They also demand sanitation and development levies, payment of property rate and all kinds of taxation running into millions of naira if calculated in a year. This is a rip off on the landlords.”

We urged the state government to look into multiple taxations which has been a rip-off on the landlords.”

The deputy governor, Onyekachukwu Ibezim, in his reaction, pledged to come to the rescue of the landlords, but said he observed that most houses in Onitsha don’t have soakaway pits while those that have channel the pits into the Sakamori drainage system and Nwangene River, thereby causing health hazards to inhabitants.

Ibezim said the essence of the interactive forum was to sensitise the residents and landlords on the need for them to stop channeling their soakaway pits into the drainages and river channels around the community, a development he said does not speak well of the largest commercial town in sub-Saharan Africa.

He said, “The essence of this meeting is for us to interface with you all, the landlords, on the need to clear the blocked drainages, clear the refuse dumps, plant trees and paint your buildings to give this place a face lift.”

The state Commissioner for Environment, Felix Odumegwu, noted that the main thrust of the meeting with the landlords was to sensitize them on the need to be clearing their drains, planting trees, as well as painting their buildings.

He noted that there is a law by the state Assembly on those issues, adding that the state government cannot use the big stick now but would engage the stakeholders before taking actions against defaulters.

The Chairman, Onitsha South Local Government Area, Chief Emeka Orji, explained that in the last one year, his administration has been able to enforce cleanliness and removal of illegal structures and shops built on top of culverts.

Orji stated that the council area would stop at nothing to put Onitsha in its position, adding that there shall be no sacred cows as those that are against the law would face the music.

The Chairman, Urban Regeneration Council, Arch Mike Okonkwo, noted that the state government wishes to replicate what is seen in the developed countries, adding that it would put Onitsha in the world map of cities that have enabling environment for business and healthy living. (The PUNCH)

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