Abia State Internal Revenue Service has reacted to the alleged fake tax clearance certificate the state governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, reportedly presented during the state’s PDP governorship primaries in 2014. According to a statement released by the state’s internal revenue service this morning, the tax certificates of Ikpeazu are not fake and were duly issued by them.
There is tension in the state currently after a High court in Abuja ordered Ikpeazu to vacate his office after his opponent in the state’s PDP overnorship primaries, Uche Ogar, proved to the court that Ikpeazu tendered fake tax credentials to their party. Read full text of the statement released by the Abia state internal revenue and signed by its chairman, Udochukwu G. Ogbonna, below
The attention of the Abia State Internal Revenue Service has been drawn to a court judgement of the Federal High Court Abuja on the tax clearance certificate issued to Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu by the Service, and hereby makes the following clarifications:
1. That the tax clearance certificate referred to in that Judgment was duly issued to Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu by the Service, and was therefore not fake.
2. That the taxes for the years 2011,2012 and 2013 were PAYE taxes deducted at source from his personal emoluments by his employers (Abia State Passengers’ Integrated Manifest Scheme and Abia State Environmental Sanitation Authority respectively) and remitted to the service in the relevant tax years
3. That the dates on the tax receipts of the relevant years (2011, 2012 and 2013) did not suggest that they were paid on those dates, but only reflected the date he applied to be issued with the receipts, because that was when he needed them.
