Reps minority caucus begins probe of alleged forgery in tax laws

By Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja

The leadership of the Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives has set up a seven-man fact-finding committee to probe alleged alteration in the tax laws passed by the National Assembly.

The setting up of the fact-finding committee was announced in a statement signed by Rep. O.K Chinda (Minority Leader) Rt. Hon. Ali Isa J.C, PhD (Minority Whip),
Rt. Hon. Aliyu Madaki (Deputy Minority Leader) and Rt. Hon. George Ozodinobi (Deputy Minority Whip) on Friday.

The statement indicated that the committee was set up after due consultations with relevant stakeholder on the controversies over the allegations of unlawful alterations made to the tax reform laws passed by the National Assembly and signed by the President.

“As the opposition bloc in the House of Representatives, we believe that we owe it to Nigerians to make an independent and non-biased investigation, to establish all the facts and arrive at the truth in the matter of the Tax Laws,” the Caucus said in the statement.

It added that the committee has the mandate of getting copies of the actual tax laws passed by both Chambers of the National Assembly and asserted to by the President and getting the federal government gazette bearing the purported forged version of the tax laws.

The Committee will scrutinize copies of the actual tax laws passed by the National Assembly to ascertain if they were the actual ones signed by the President, and then compare them with the ones gazetted by the gazetting agency of the federal government

The Committee was also mandated to recommend to the Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives the possible actions that can be taken in the event any infractions have been proven to have occurred.

The committee has Hon. Afam Ogene as Chairman. The other members of the committee are ⁠Hon. Gaza Gbefwi Jonathan, Hon. MB Shehu Fagge, ⁠Hon. Aliyu Garu, Hon. Stanley Adedeji, Hon. Ibe Okwara and Hon. Marie Ibikake

The committee was given seven days to complete its assignment and report its findings to the leadership of the Caucus.

“Finally, we want to remind Nigerians of our unflinching commitment to the protection of their interests, and this step we have just taken is one of the ways we are using to get to the root of this controversy that has overheated our polity. We are determined, more than ever, to make sure our country’s citizens are not short-changed, especially the poor and vulnerable segments of our populations,” the caucus said in the statement.