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Okorocha imposes N3,000 development levy on Imo adults

By Charles Ogugbuaja, Owerri
26 September 2016   |   4:01 am
Citing the need to replicate development in all 637 communities of Imo State, Governor Rochas Okorocha has directed all taxable adults in the 27 local councils to pay N3,000 as development levy.
Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha

Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha

Citing the need to replicate development in all 637 communities of Imo State, Governor Rochas Okorocha has directed all taxable adults in the 27 local councils to pay N3,000 as development levy.

The governor, who gave the directive at the weekend while inaugurating the state’s Development Council and presenting adult registers to government representatives in Owerri, urged the people to face current challenges and pay for their benefits, adding that every taxable adult must register.

House of Assembly Speaker, Acho Ihim, reminded the audience of the Imo State Traditional Rulers and Autonomous Law which mandates that a community must have a minimum population of 2,000 for it to be recognised by government.

The Commissioner for Community Government, Culture and Traditional Affairs, Innocent Eke, said the Community Government Council (CGC), put in place by the current administration, had decentralised power and empowered communities, as the people now participate in the management of their affairs.

The chairman, Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Sam Ohiri, assured execution of the order.

In this article

18 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    This is the height of inresponsibity on the part of rochas.
    Where salaries are not been paid to workers or pensioners

  • Author’s gravatar

    Very sad that such is happening in our state. Blame us for voting you in power because we had a better choice and we failed to do what is good for us, today we are ripping the fruits our vote. To the Traditional ruler that agreed on the order, where is money going to come out, corruption everywhere in Nigeria, if you are in power remember that one day you will die and face God, and the power will die and face God, that we all cannot runaway from it.

  • Author’s gravatar

    OMG! On the aegis of this statewide suffering? Where are the financially beseeched people going to earn N3,000.00 per annum? Does he understand that there are families if assessed as a national economy, have a GDP less than that amount in a fiscal period? He should be cutting not increasing Taxes! The allocations due the state in these series could have built twice his capital escapades if that’s the reason for this reckless proposal. Remember the 3-day workweek thinking, the non-payment of salaries and the overall stagnation in the National economy. Are we going insane?

  • Author’s gravatar

    I think this man smokes weed

  • Author’s gravatar

    Imo was lost when traditional institution was bastardized.
    Every Ehu and nkita become His Royal Highness to the disadvantages of purposeful community welfare known for past royal fathers.
    What has Imolites enjoyed under Rochas to warrant imposition of any levy.

    Imolites to pay levy for reckless spending of our common wealth on worthless and thoughtless ventures that were aimed at siphoning state treasury,? like 27 useless uncompleted hospitals and array of china roads with 60 days lifespan.?
    A drive through Concorde culvert which Rochas named Concorde tunnel will make you to curse all the policy makers and state assembly members that site idly by while Imo state is being ripped and raped, that culvert developed 2 feet pot holes under 30 day of use.
    Indeed, Imolites are in trouble with the type of HRHs they now have. Traditional rulers without direction nor opinion, Traditional rulers that are made by the state governor and the people. What a shame.

  • Author’s gravatar

    This governor thinks he’s there to be worshiped. I think the Imo people must rise now to stop this nonsense. Workers are paying taxes, now Okorocha wants to impose levies even on those that have no means of livelihood. This is a clear sign that he is not in touch with the real people he claims to govern. Everytime this governor wakes up from sleep he tries to introduce one silly policy or the other. A few weeks ago he talked of reducing working days to make workers go to farm; now he’s talking of imposing a levy. I think the counsel of his advisers have been turned into foolishness similar to that of Biblical Ahithophel. And I tell you, this governor has misled the people of Imo State, and will pay the price very dearly.

  • Author’s gravatar

    I can only pity the imolites. Their rights as Ndi Imo has been devalued far below the Naira, for letting a man without any purpose to rule them. Animal Farm is all that i can call what is going on in Imo state.

    The people are weak!!!

    Ndi Imo ndonu… You guys need to wake up.

  • Author’s gravatar

    “Our governor has gone mad again ” or was the title of that play “our husband has gone mad again?” …..whatever!!!

  • Author’s gravatar

    Ooooooh! The Rochas they did not know. Ndoonu oooh.

  • Author’s gravatar

    This Rochas is shameless. Is this the INDUSTRY. INDUSTRY INDUSTRY you promised the electorate? Imagine giving you N3000 each.

    N3,000 X 2000 people per community X 637 communities in Imo State.. You want to dupe the people the total sum of N3,822,000,000.00. Barawo !!!! Onye Oshii,, Ole Nie……

    You spent our money hosting parties, for your party members and your grand son; Now you want to ripe the people apart. Owu ebidobe samma gi. Ke wugi Ututu…

  • Author’s gravatar

    I never knew that this man’s dementia
    could descend to this level. Mr okorocha, are you aware that many elderly pensioners who you refused to pay for 3 years now are the ones still suffering to feed their children who have graduated for 10 years without work. Everytime they give you verified list of pensioners you will say that they are still too many. You are wishing all of them death so as not to pay them. The unemployed adults are the people you target for levy. We are watching to see how it will work. This governor will cause an otokoto type of riot in Imo state where the people will rise against the government one day.

  • Author’s gravatar

    MAD GOVERNOR.THIS ORDER CAN NEVER HAPPEN.I WILL NOT EVER PAY YOUR NONSENSE LEVY.ITS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

  • Author’s gravatar

    STUPID ORDER.LET ME SEE THE MAD MAN THAT WILL COME AND ASK FOR THAT NONSENSE MONEY.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Another trouble for the common man!. When the political class greedily and selfishly embezzled the Common wealth of the nation, failed to fulfill campaign promises, depleted the available Infrastructures, Collected pension benefits from workers’ income for years without giving it back to workers on retirement, owing workers’ salaries for up to 8months, killing hopes and aspirations of the younger generations, NASS importing SUV s when workers can not be paid, schools and hospitals collapsing when your own children are studying abroad, and your own wives keeping $51 million in one account for medical expenses, even when she is not sick yet, then this governor has the effrontery to ask the common man to pay three thousand Naira development fee so that the political class can get money to spend. If I may ask, where do they get the money from?. You are a mean and inconsiderate human being. The people should rise up against this move, and tell the political class that you are not fools. Instead, the money they bastardized should be refunded, and these people jailed for life.

  • Author’s gravatar

    A poll tax is in itself morally wrong. It becomes scandalous when it is imposed on a people reeling with unemployment, unpaid salaries and pensions and hyper-inflation.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Didn’t I warned voters that not only would this governor steal the federal funds allocated to imo state but he will find a way of stealing directly from the voters’s pockets? Boy, I hate being right all the time, but the voters get to reap what they sowed!

  • Author’s gravatar

    Daylight Robbery. Development levy is Not same as income tax. So after removing tax from personal income come development Levy. Double taxation. Chai.