‘Otti’s Govt Has Weaponised Taxation against Traders in Abia’

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, Paul Ikonne, has accused the administration of Governor Alex Otti of Abia state of weaponising taxation against traders in the state.

Ikonne, in a statement  yesterday, lamented that the governor’s appointees have turned a lawful civic responsibility into a brutal tool of oppression.

He expressed deep worry over the untold hardship traders in Ariaria and other major markets in Aba are currently facing in the hands of these government-backed enforcers.

Ikonne noted: “The governor’s appointees have weaponised taxation, turning a lawful civic responsibility into a brutal tool of oppression.”

He recalled how Otti, during campaigns, criticized the N18,000 levy imposed by the former administration as “too high” and promised drastic reduction.

Ikonne said shockingly, upon assuming office, the same governor inflated the levy to an outrageous N36,000, pushing thousands of struggling traders into deeper economic misery.

He added that traders who can barely afford their daily survival are now confronted with an impossible choice: pay the inflated levy or lose their only source of livelihood.

Ikonne noted: “Government enforcers now move under the cover of night to seal shops of traders who have not paid the new high levy. By morning, affected traders are forced to either pay or face even harsher consequences.

“Those who attempt to unseal their shops by themselves are met with coercion, assault, and brutalization from a combined force of government-recruited thugs, police, and even naval personnel. In many cases, traders are re-arrested, their shops re-sealed, and they are forced to pay as much as N45,000.

“This is not governance; this is tyranny. How can a governor who receives over N30 billion in monthly federal allocations turn around to strangulate ordinary traders struggling to feed their families? What exactly does Governor Otti want from the meagre earnings of the common man?”

He emphasised that tax policies must be humane, fair, and considerate of the prevailing economic difficulties faced by citizens.

The APC Chieftain stressed that when taxation becomes a political weapon — arbitrary, excessive, and enforced with violence — it becomes unbearable and unacceptable.

According to him, I am worried that the present Abia state government has normalised the sealing of shops, properties, indiscriminate arrests, court summons, and humiliating treatment of Abians whose only crime is their inability to meet oppressive and inflated levies.

“The rate of molestation and intimidation by agents of this government is alarming,” he stated. No democratic society should subject its citizens to such cruelty. Governor Otti must remember that leadership is about service, not punishment.”