By CHUKS EKE
Authorities of Heavy Duty Truck Association of Nigeria, HDTDAN, have threatened to drag to the Federal High Court, all those they identified as illegal revenue collectors who pose as government revenue agents along the highways in the country and force their members to buy all manner of emblems and stickers.
National President of the association, Comrade Uche Rogers Nebuwa who issued the threat in his office at Nkpor, Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra state, while reacting to series of reports from his members across the country that some faceless revenue agents are harassing their members and in some cases, impounded their vehicles over refusal to buy their illegal emblems and stickers, said henceforth, any more cases of such harassment would be contested in the law court.
Nebuwa disclosed that while at the Federal High Court, the association would claim as much as N100,000 from such revenue collectors as dumorrage per day for each heavy duty truck they impounded in the course of forcing their members to buy their illegal emblems and stickers.
He however noted that the association has some stipulated states and local governments consolidated emblems and stickers which they buy through the Nigerian Legion geared towards boosting the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR profile of states and local governments areas in the country where their members operate, adding that their members would buy annual consolidated state and local government revenue of any state they operate from.
He reminded such illegal revenue collected of the existing law banning the sale of emblems and stickers to motorists, including heavy duty truck drivers across the federation, by the Joint Tax Board, JTB which also requested the Inspector-General of Police, IGP to enforce compliance, adding that henceforth, defaulters would not only be dragged to the court but also dragged to the police and JTB.
Nebuwa who recently emerged as the National President of the association in a keenly contested election of new executive members, contended that the days of harassment of their members by these shylock revenue collectors have henceforth become a thing of the past, just as their days of illegal operations are also numbered.
