FIRS seals off Ekiti education college, arrests principal officers.

Officials of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in Ekiti State, on Wednesday, sealed off the College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, over allegations of non-remittance of taxes.

The tax officials, during the operation, also arrested the principal officers of the college, saying they had to make a commitment to the agency for not remitting about N6.7 million tax arrears.

Provost of the college, Professor Francisca Aladejana; its registrar, Mr Gbenga Ojo and the bursar, Mr Kayode Ige, were the principal officers arrested by the tax officials.

The FIRS enforcement team, led by Mr Olugbenga Adepesoye, sealed off the administrative building of the institution at about 10.30 a.m., in a joint operation with men of the Ekiti State police command.

The Ekiti State monitor of the operation, Mr Olugbenga Adegoke, said the college was sealed off “because of the arrears of Value Added Tax (VAT) and withheld tax, which the institution is owing us,” adding that “the assessment period is between 2002 and 2007.”

According to Adegoke, “the reconciliation was done around May 2008. It was about N12 million. Since then, the institution only paid over N5 million and the outstanding is N6.7 million.”

He said “We made a lot of entreaties and persuasions, we monitored them.

published by Nigerian Tribune