The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola has said that the rich must be taxed mercilessly in order to eradicate poverty in Nigeria.

Aregbesola stated this while speaking at the 60th birthday of the former governor of Oyo state, Abiola Ajimobi, on Monday, December 16, 2019.

The minister said that if the rich failed to address the problem of poverty in Nigeria, their comfort would be taken away by the poor.

“We must mercilessly tax the rich, if we are to cure the problem of poverty. We have two contending forces, the poor and the privileged rich,” he said.

“The rich have no problem, they are comfortable. The problem is the poor and they are in the majority. And the point is if the rich failed to address this problem, the comfort of the rich will be taken away, so they must release much of their money to help the poor.

“We have left the rich men in Nigeria without discharging their responsibility to the citizens, particularly on taxation,” he said.

“So, I am going to pioneer privilege taxes for those who have huge resources or wealth from which Nigerians must tap. If I go into this, there might be some ill feelings in some quarters, so I won’t go deep into that. I will recommend serious taxation for wealthy people in Nigeria,”