25th February, 2016
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Caretaker Committee Chairman of Port Harcourt City Local Government, Sunny Samuel Ejekwu, has denied that the Council imposed Perfume Tax on market women to buy perfume for Governor Nyesom Wike.
Ejekwu said the council was embarrassed to hear that such ridiculous tax or levy was imposed on market women in Mile Three Market, Diobu, Port Harcourt.
He vowed that the authenticity of the allegation and others that the market women raised in their protest to Government House on Monday would be investigated and if found to be true that some unscrupulous individuals were extorting money from women in the name of the Council and to ridicule Governor, the masterminds would be dealt with.
Market women in their hundreds from Mile Three Market in Port Harcourt had on Monday, this week, staged peaceful protest and marched to Government House to protest the imposition on several new taxes on them including one for the governor’s special perfume.
Since assuming office in May, Governor Nyesom Wike has sought to increase the amount of revenue generated internally within Rivers State.
The women from the market located in the Diobu district of Port Harcourt claimed the levies are punitive and too many.
The women, who chanted war songs, caused a gridlock around Azikiwe Road as they asked Governor Wike to call to order the Port Harcourt City Local Government Council chairman.
They lamented the that the extortion from a group suspected to be a task force established by the council was impoverishing them.
Although the women’s protest was peaceful, their placards had slogans which read: “We no go gree,” “Pay-pay too much,” “Stop collecting chairman’s money from us,” and “Save us from extortion and intimidation.”
One of the protesting market women said: “Each of us pays levies ranging from N1,500 to N4,000. The one that is annoying us and forced us to embark on this protest is the N2,000 for governor’s perfume.”
The women said that they were told that the money would be used to purchase perfume for the governor.
They demanded that the governor needs to appoint a chairman for the market to protect them from the incessant harassment and extortion from task force members.
“The task force constituted by the government is using their position to intimidate us and extort money from us. They charge us money unnecessarily and they coin names for each of the money they want to take from us.
“Sometimes we don’t sell anything but they will ensure that we pay more than N1,000 daily. We don’t make much in our trade but our small gains go into the government’s pocket,” a trader called Gladys said.
Ejekwu said he was not aware of any extortion in Mile Three market. He described the allegation of intimidation and extortion by the market women as blackmail and added that the claims by the market women were politically motivated.
He, however, promised to investigate the matter to find out the actual reason behind the market women’s protest at the Government House in Port Harcourt.
Dr Austin Tam-George, the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communication, said there was no such levy for the governor’s perfume, adding that Governor Wike had ordered the arrest of fake task force members who specialised in extorting money from traders.