Police detain seven tax officials over Plateau fraud
JUNE 26, 2013
The police in Jos have detained seven employees of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, following the directive by the Tax Appeal Tribunal to the Attorney-General of Plateau State to arraign them for fraud.
Chairman of the tribunal, Abraham Yisa, who gave the order on Tuesday, said the employees of FIRS were alleged to have forged Federal Government’s tax receipts to claim over N17m from the Plateau State Universal Basic Education Board.
The forged tax receipts were uncovered by the tribunal when FIRS dragged SUBEB before the tax appeal tribunal for tax evasion.
The forged documents, which were tendered by SUBEB before the court to substantiate its claim of having remitted some tax, led the court to suspect some elements of fraud and subsequently ordered the state police command to investigate the forged documents.
The chairman, while expressing delight at the professionalism of the police for getting to the root of the crime, commended the Force for the investigation, which he said had simplified the work of the tribunal,
He also recommended the investigating officers for promotion.
Presenting the report during the sitting of the tribunal in Jos, Plateau State Police Commissioner, Mr. Chris Olakpe, represented by Corporal Yahaya Adamu, said the police investigated the matter and discovered that the said documents were truly forged.
Olakpe said, “The command has arrested seven suspects in connection with the fraud and are in its custody awaiting order of the court for prosecution.”
The tribunal adjourned sitting till July 30, after hearing all the seven cases pending before it. The adjournment was sequel to the fact that most of the parties asked for time to conclude processes for out- of-court settlement.
No comments:
Post a Comment