Ikpeazu’s tax certificate not fake, says Abia revenue agency

The Abia State Internal Revenue Service (ASIRS) on Monday said that the tax certificate it issued to Okezie Ikpeazu, governor of the state, was not fake.

On June 27,  Okon Abang, justice of the federal high court, Abuja, nullified the election of Ikpeazu on the grounds that he filed a forged tax certificate to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the course of the party’s governorship primary election in the state.

The judge ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue a certificate of return to Uche Ogah, the first runner-up in the primary election, as the governor-elect of the southeastern state.

Ogah had filed a suit against Ikpeazu at the court, challenging his eligibility to hold the office of governor on the grounds that he had tendered a fake tax certificate before his election in 2015.

But the Abia state revenue agency in a statement by  Udochukwu Ogbonna, its chairman, said that the certificate was not fake.

“The tax clearance certificate referred to in that judgment was duly issued to Dr Okezie Victor Ikpeazu by the service, and was therefore not fake,” it said.

“That the taxes for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 were PAYE taxes deducted at source from his personal emoluments by his employers (Abia State Passengers’ Integrated Manifest Scheme and Abia State Environment Sanitation Authority respectively) and remitted to the service in the relevant tax years.

“Finally, we state emphatically for the record and for the attention of the general public that we were never invited by the court or the plaintiff, Dr Uchechukwu Ogah, during the pendency of the subject suit that led to judgment in Dr Okezie Ikpeazu’s tax matter to state the authenticity or otherwise of the tax papers in issue.”