Twelve suspected fake tax collectors operating within the Ibadan metropolis were on Tuesday arrested by a combined team of policemen from the Oyo State command and operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
The suspected illegal tax collectors were rounded up at the revenue office at the Onireke area of Ibadan and were moved from there to the office of the Oyo State Board of Internal Revenue, where they were paraded before newsmen.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Revenue Generation, Mr. Biyi Oloko, said that the action of those arrested contravened the policy of the present administration in the state, adding that a Special Task Force set up by the government made the arrest possible.
He, therefore, charged residents of the state to be wary, when accosted by any person or groups demanding payment of revenue from them.
One of the arrested suspects, who identified himself as Kola Ali, declared that they were on contract agreement for the job with the Oke Ibadan North Local Council Development Area.
He insisted that they were not illegal officials as they were operating with the full knowledge and permission of the newly created LCDA.
When contacted on the telephone, the Caretaker Chairman of Oke Ibadan North Local Council Development Area, Samuel Ajadi, admitted that those arrested were engaged by the council for tax collection, but the council had yet to inform the state board of internal revenue.
The suspects have since been handed over to the police for appropriate action as the controversy trailing their legitimacy has yet to be resolved between the Oke Ibadan North LCDA and the officials of the Board of internal revenue, who paraded them.
