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, on several occasions, we saw the provost, the bursar and the registrar. All our entreaties fell on deaf ears. That is why we are here.”

He, however, said there were no immediate plans to prosecute the arrested officials. “Until when they make the commitment and the commitment is not fulfilled, we may be tempted to refer it to the legal and prosecution unit of the FIRS. They may likely face prosecution if they failed to pay the outstanding,” he said.

The Provost of the college, who was not around when the enforcement team arrived at the institution, engaged them in an argument with Adegoke, who had insisted that she must go with the enforcement team to their office. While Aladejana promised that the institution would make efforts to pay the arrears and begged for understanding, Adegoke said “that has been said several times but the FIRS want a commitment.”

a state institution but what we need is that the provost, the bursar and the Registrar need to go with us to make commitment.” The three officials of the college, who had been accompanied by their lawyer to the FIRS office in Ado Ekiti, were released a few hours later after they were said to have made commitments to pay the arrears.