Lagos rejects court order against consumption tax law

• Appoints Lawal Pedro To Lead Legal Team
Lagos State Government has rejected a Federal High Court injunction that temporarily restrained the state from enforcing the provisions of the 2017 Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant (Fiscalisation) Regulations 2017. Also, the state government has appointed the immediate past Solicitor General of the state, Lawal Pedro (SAN) to lead its legal team to challenge the order suspending the regulation until the suit is concluded.

A state legal officer, who disclosed this, lamented that the order was an affront to a Supreme Court decision that validated the Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption Law, 2009. In a ruling he delivered last week, Justice Rilwan Aikawa suspended the regulation until the substantive suit filed by the Association of the Registered Trustees Hotel Owners and Managers Association of Lagos was determined. The judge equally suspended the Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption Law while restraining the state government from enforcing it in some parts of the State.

But at a session yesterday, he said the state government “is aware of an ex-parte injunction granted by the Federal High Court Lagos on March 21 in respect of the new regulations the state government issued pursuant to the Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption Law.”

Specifically, the court noted that the lower court delivered the injunction without taking congisance of the decision of the apex court that validated the legality of the Hotel Occupancy and Restaurant Consumption Law in 2013.

He added that it was unfortunate that former Attorney General of the state, Mr. Olasupo Shasore (SAN) could take up a legal battle against a legislation that the State House of Assembly validly enacted under his supervision.