Military Joint Taskforce Arrests Fake Revenue Collector In Onitsha

                                         

An Onitsha based park agent, Chukwudi Ogah was yesterday arrested by the joint security operatives led by the Nigeria Army.

The suspect was arrested along upper Iweka axis while molesting a driver for not paying his daily revenue even as an undisclosed sum and charms were discovered from the suspect.

Other members of joint security team included the Police, Navy, Department of Security Service (SSS), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and other para-military operatives.

The joint team later launched operation traffic flow and chased the touts loading along the roads inside the Onitsha central park even as most of the touts and pick pockets went into hiding.

    The team mounted surveillance along Upper Iweka to bridge head and Aba park to electrical market, attracting commendation from traders and passers-by who hailed the exercise.

    Some of them, Osondu Igbokwe, Agatha Nwanne and Ambrose Eze commended the leadership of Governor Willie Obiano in his avowed resolve to rid the state off criminalities but urged that the tempo be sustained so that traders can heave a sigh of relieve.

   Addressing journalists, the leader of the team and Anambra State DCP Operations, Agyole Abeh said the exercise is to sanitize the state and to ensure that there is free flow of traffic in the commercial nerve centre of the state. He added that armed robbers and kidnappers will not have peace until they leave the state.

The suspect fingered one Chijioke Onwe from Imo State as their boss and disclosed that they make more than N10, 000 daily but were being paid N1, 000 on daily basis adding that the charm is for protection against driver’s curses.

But, Chijioke Onwe when contacted denied that his name is not Chijioke Onwe but Nnamdi Anaekwe. He disclosed that he is a certified pack agent managing Onitsha-Asaba Township buses motor park saying that he was duly commissioned by the State Government as a park agent.

    When this reporter insisted on evidence as an agent, the said agent flanked an appointment letter duly signed by the Anambra State Commissioners for Transport and Finance, Dr. Chike Ohamobi and Ngozika Okoye respectively as well as that of S.A. on Internally Generated Revenue, Lady V.A. Obinwa.

   The letter reads in part, “Approval has been given to you (Anambra Solid Cooperative Society Ltd) as park agent for the management of Onitsha-Asaba Township Buses Motor Parks…”

    When contacted, the State Commissioner for Transport, Dr. Chike Ohamobi denied knowing any such name as Chukwudi Oga, Chijioke Onwe and Nnamdi Anakwe but admitted signing an appointment letter of Anambra Solid Cooperative Society Ltd, which is being managed by one Mr. Nelson.

   His words: “Anambra Solid Cooperative  Society is a legal agent of the State Government. We empowered the agent and we group them as Asaba Township Bus, an urban bus that stops at various bus stops. It is a genuine revenue window and they pay close to N1 million in government coffers every month.

    “So, it could be that those names you are calling are the people helping the man in collecting the revenue and if he is a genuine agent and was arrested, then, it will amount to disruption of the chain of revenue collection in the state”.

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