by Osita Chinedu
The Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (ESIRS) has today, Tuesday 13, February sealed up the Timber Shed and Eke Market Abakpa Nike, Enugu in a bid to drive her revenue generation strategy in the market.
The always busy Timber Shed/Eke Market was seen a shadow of itself as at 8:00 am as traders and sawmill operators were seen standing in clusters discussing their ordeal. The traders accessed the market through some pedestrian entrances as all vehicular routes were locked.
According to a trader who spoke in anonymity, officers from the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service was here sometime around June or July 2023 to inform the traders that they are expected to pay the sum of two hundred naira (N200) daily which sums up to about six thousand naira (N6,000) monthly as operational revenue and has since not paid a repeat visit hence the levity on the side of the traders.
“Yesterday in the evening, we witnessed a handful of police presence in the market. We were expecting to be addressed by the leadership of the market but never did get any summon. It was therefore a shock that we were coming to the market today to meet everywhere under lock and key.”
Expressing further displeasure, he lamented that after the first presence of the men from the Enugu State IRS, there had been no further directive on the mode of payments to be made, designated bank or collection account until the day of seal up.
“Nobody even directed us on how this payment should be made, where it should be made, account number or any other such relevant information. They just came with armed policemen and locked up the entire place.”
A delegation of the Timber Shed/Eke Market leadership paid a visit to the Internal Revenue office at the Enugu East Local Government Headquarters, Nkwo Nike, though the outcome of the visit has not been made known while all efforts to reach the spokesperson of the IRS was not successful as at the time of this report.
