By Our Correspondent
Speculations have trailed the resignation of the outgone Managing Director/Chairman of the Anambra State Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Christian Madiebo.
The AiRS Boss had, on Thursday, announced his “resignation” from the position while interacting with some staff of the agency.
Although, Madiebo did not give any detailed reason for the said resignation, he, however, stated that he had informed Governor Chukwuma Soludo of the decision. According to him, he had earlier told the Governor that he would only serve for one year in the office, when he gave him the appointment.
Mr. Madiebo also said that he was missing some of his entitlements at the financial institutions where he worked earlier, and would want to go and claim them.
In their reactions, however, some residents of the State have dismissed Madiebo’s reasons as unauthentic.
Some concerned citizens who commented on the said resignation speculated that he must have hastily resigned for reasons far more believable than the ones he tendered.
They further challenged Mr. Madiebo to publish evidence of where he discussed and agreed with the Governor that he would resign after one year in office, as well as a copy of his resignation letter sent to and approved by the Governor.
“It is only when I see these evidences that I will believe that you truly and honourably resigned. Until I see them, I don’t have any reason to believe you. Who knows, you may have been surreptitiously sacked for incompetence,” Uche Ifeaka, a social media user said.
Corroborating what Ifeaka said, another concerned citizen, Clinton Ibe, challenged the authenticity of Madiebo’s claims, and argued that it was not possible for Governor Soludo to go into such agreement that his appointee would resign after one year in office, as such would only result to gross inconsistency and unjustifiable waste of resources on the side of his government.
Recall that Governor Soludo had, sometime in March, decried the drastic drop in the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the State, during which he lamented that the State’s IGR was not even close to 50% of what he anticipated to achieve.
The Governor stressed that he expected to have the State Board of Internal Revenue Service (headed by Mr. Madiebo) to double its initial revenue within its first four months, which did not happen.
While emphasizing that the 2023 budget of the State projected the generation of over ₦4 billion per month for its implementation, whereas the current figure then was still far below ₦2 billion per month; the Governor then threatened to disband the Board of Internal Revenue Revenue Service if they failed again in achieving an increase in the State’s IGR as were mandated.
The residents, therefore, are of the opining that Governor Soludo may have either concluded plans to disband the IGR Board Chaired by Mr. Madiebo, for not still effecting any positive rise in the figures of the State’s IGR at the expiration of the second chance of three months that the Governor gave them in March to improve the internal revenue figure of the State.
Furthermore, speculations also abound that Madiebo may have resigned as a result of power tussle and clash of responsibilities between him and some influential individuals in the Revenue Board, such as Dr. Greg Ezeilo, Dr. Christian Madubuko and Mr. Benjamin Okafor, whom Governor Soludo recently appointed as Executive Directors and as representatives of the three senatorial zones in the state in the State Board Internal Revenue Service, which he (Madiebo) was heading as the Chairman before his resignation
In his reaction to the speculation, one of the three Executive Directors, Dr. Madubuko, who was a Commissioner under former Governor Willie Obiano’s administration, said there was no face-off between him and Madiebo, adding that they had all been working harmoniously without any rift.
Dr. Madubuko, who said he could not tell the reason why Madiebo resigned, also added that he was not aware of the said resignation until he got to the office on Thursday.
“I just came into the Revenue House, only to hear that Madiebo has resigned, and we do not know why he resigned; and those alleging that we have issues of power tussle are simply being mischievous,” he said.
