Vows to arrest, prosecute illegal revenue collectors
Governor of Enugu State, Dr Peter Mbah, has rejected the claims of high taxation in the state, describing them as a pathetic misconception promoted by the opposition and beneficiaries of the old order, who manipulated revenue collection to fatten their private pockets.
 
Mbah insisted that his administration had grown the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by widening the tax net to bring in more taxable persons, blocking revenue leakages, and tackling sharp practices that hitherto drained public revenues by introducing the Consolidated Demand Notice, e-ticketing, as well as recovery, optimisation, and monetisation of the state’s assets.
 
He stressed that the Enugu State Government did not have the power to increase or reduce taxes under the 1999 Constitution, as it is the exclusive preserve of the Federal Government.
 
The governor provided the clarifications in an exclusive interview aired by Afia Television on Wednesday evening.
 
“First, as a state, we are not able to legislate on taxation. It is in the exclusive legislative list, which can only be legislated on by the National Assembly. Whether it is your Personal Income Tax, your Company Income Tax, your Value Added Tax or your Withholding Tax, those taxes can only be legislated on by the National Assembly,” he clarified.

Mbah said that those framing the false narratives could not come to terms with the fact that his administration could scale up the state’s IGR from N26.8 billion, the state recorded in 2022, to N37.4 billion by the end of 2023, N180.5 billion in 2024, and N406.7 billion in 2025.
 
“I think for those framing this false narrative, it is beyond their imagination that we could optimise our dormant assets and grow our revenue exponentially.
 
“They fail or refuse to take note of the fact that in 2025, for instance, tax revenue accounted for only N51.5 billion or 12.6 per cent of the N406.7 billion IGR, while non-tax revenue was N355.2 billion or 87.4 per cent,” the governor added,” the governor said.

He, however, acknowledged the activities of illegal revenue collectors, saying the recently passed Enugu State Harmonised Taxes and Levies (Approved List for Collection) Law, 2026, would finally eliminate road blocks and unauthorised collections that have burdened residents of the state.
 
He added that the government will scale up enforcement and public enlightenment to check the activities of extortionists.

“Some people still go about extorting money from helpless citizens because this is a practice that has gone on over the years. But we have constituted a standing task force to track and bring them to book.  We also want the citizens to report them. We now have several toll-free lines where citizens can call. They do not have to have airtime to place such calls,” he concluded.