Posted by The PM News on
The Lagos state government has embarked on the demolition of shanties in the popular Computer Village, Ikeja, due to non-compliance with the environmental sanitation law, and non-payment of tax in the state.
The Lagos state government has embarked on the demolition of shanties in the popular Computer Village, Ikeja, due to non-compliance with the environmental sanitation law, and non-payment of tax in the state.
Director of Special Duties, Lagos State Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Kunle Oseni, told P.M.News that 'the Lagos state government took a decision last Thursday, to shut down the Computer Village for three reasons; non-payment of tax, that is, personal income tax, street trading and violation of sanitation law.'
'For the past few years, there have been series of meetings with the executives of the Computer Village community as regards the three issues and they were not forthcoming,' he stated.
Oseni added that 'some of the containers that were demolished were placed on drainage channels and were disrupting the free flow of waste water. Moreover, street trading is illegal in Lagos state and if you come here on an ordinary day, pedestrians cannot walk freely on these streets, not to talk of vehicles. That should stop.' He revealed that traders in the market refused to pay tax in the last three years and neglected the environment by refusing to carry out sanitation exercises on designated days.
Oseni disclosed that the last ultimatum given them expired in September, adding that the market would have been shut earlier but the government suspended the action as a result of the local government elections.
'Ikeja Local Government provided a market for them but they refused to relocate, now they have no choice but to go there,' he added.
Traders and sympathisers watched helplessly as the shops were destroyed. One of the traders, Don Nwosu, said: 'Last week, they (government) said we are going to pay a tax but they did not specify the amount. Now, they accuse us of not meeting up with the deadline given us. Shop owners were told to pay N5,100 while the traders who rented the shops should pay N2,600.'
He accused the state government of intimidating the traders because they failed to pay the amount demanded from them.