Petroleum Engineer Keke rider leads protest against Soludo’s heavy taxation

Anambra shuttle bus drivers Forum (ASBDF) and Anambra Keke Riders Forum(AKDF) may soon withdraw services to the public any moment soon.

This is, according to them, is to protest government heavy taxation.

The protest is led by a petroleum engineering graduate of Federal University of Technology, Owerri ( FUTO), Imo State, who is a Keke rider in the state, Engr Chuks Chukwudindu .

The group alleged that the state government configured its account app to five weeks a month instead of four, compelling them to pay for five weeks in a month.

They stated that even when their vehicles would be in the mechanic, they would still be compelled to pay levies to government.

They reached the decision after their weekly meeting in Awka , the Anambra state capital.

According to them, the governor, Charles Soludo had placed a heavy yoke of taxation on them in their suffering .

One of the keke riders,Engr Chuks Chukwudindu who spoke with our reporter said the reason for their planned sit -at-home was to draw the attention of the public to what they were passing through in the hands of the Anambra state government.

Chukwudindu, a petroleum engineer and a graduate of FUTO said it was unfair for government to collect five-weeks tax in a month from them instead of four weeks.

He also said that they would soon embark on an indefinite sit-at-home to protest multiple taxation by the state,which he said was stifling them and their families.

According to him, the government had changed the long maxim that said, “four weeks make one months to five weeks weeks make one month.”

He said,”If you pay for one month and immediately it is four weeks your payment expires and you pay for extra days in the month .

We were taught in schools that four weeks make one month but in Soludo’s interpretation, four weeks do no longer make a month” he started.

According to him, they are supposed to pay N10000 every month and if one divides N10000 by four is N2500 per week. But government said that it has configured its app to capture five weeks in a month. We are forced to pay for the remaining days.

“We are considering to withdraw service based on harsh treatment the state government is forcing on us.’

Chukwudindu said Soludo had promised them that after the payment of N10,000 monthly, they would not pay any other levy, “but today he is asking us to pay another N4000 for emblem.”

Continuing he said “I pay every 4th day of the month and as I was going to pay on 4th August ,they arrested me that ,I am owing one week, that my payment had expired last week after four weeks.

“That the configuration of government app captures five weeks in one month . I told them that I had not heard when government paid workers more in a month because the weeks were more.

“Government should know that we are in the same country where things are hard.
We buy fuel, feed our families , maintain our vehicles” he added.

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