By IHECHINYERE CHIGEMERI-UWOM

The Abia Government says it has set up a single multipurpose taskforce to streamline revenue collection processes in the state.

The state Commissioner for Information and Culture, Mr Okey Kanu, disclosed this during a news conference on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting at the Government House, Umuahia.

Kanu explained that the decision to set up the new taskforce was informed by the need to stop the nefarious activities of touts and to restore sanity in the system.

He said that the government had disbanded the multiple taskforce responsible for revenue collection due to concerns about touts parading as revenue collection officials.

He said that they were also disbanded due to their unruly behaviour toward the citizenry.

According to him, government has disbanded the multiple taskforce in the state and will soon make public, details of the new single multipurpose outfit that will undertake services rendered by the disbanded taskforce.

“The government is warning all those who engage in illegal task force activities to desist from such practices forthwith or they will face the full wrath of the law.”

The commissioner expressed the determination of the government to deal with the issue of touting through strict implementation and enforcement of its new policy.

He assured that the government was making concerted efforts to ensure that in no distant time touting would be a thing of the past.

“Most of them hide under the toga of one taskforce or the other to perpetrate these heinous crimes against the citizens of the state, this will not continue.

“The government has very serious aversion to touting and efforts are being made to discontinue the activities of touts including enforcing taking them to mobile courts,” he said.

Similarly, the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mr Kingsley Anosike, said that the state government decided to harmonise the revenue collection process in a manner that authorised revenue collection agents would be easily identified.

Anosike said that in line with the new revenue collection policy, revenue collection agents would have an official uniform, Identity card and other forms of identification, including electronic identification.

He said that this would make it easy for people to know those who have been authorised to collect revenue and those that move around harassing people.

“It will also mean that those who have been authorised have been properly briefed and trained on the process of collection in such a way that their conduct would be civil.

“This means that in a case of misconduct you can have references to report and action will be taken against those people that have gone out of their ways to do what is not right.

“This can only be achieved if these people can be properly identified,” Anosike added.

Meanwhile the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma, noted that, hitherto, touts took advantage of the taskforce set up by the local government councils and some agencies to ply their illegal trade.

“The government had earlier issued an order that there will only be one taskforce and that was to checkmate the truck drivers who ply our roads in the day time.

“Unfortunately, some hoodlums took advantage of it and formed all kinds of illegal taskforce and sometimes we wonder where they are coming from,” he said.

He said that drastic measures had been put in place to ensure that anyone caught touting would be used to “set serious examples”.

Ekeoma assured that within the shortest possible time the government would take very decisive measures to ensure that the menace of touting was brought to an end in the state.

He, however, urged commercial transportation operators to endeavour to pay their taxes through the electronic channel provided by the government.

“So we are not encouraging people not to pay their daily ticket levy, so that it does not look like we are contradicting ourselves,” Ekeoma added. (NAN)

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