Aggrieved women at Ochendo Shoes and Bags Industrial Market, Aba,
Abia State, has staged a peaceful demonstration to protest
against imposition of high tax by officials of some government revenue
agents.The over 500 women, dressed in back attire, closed their shops
and stormed the Court Premises at the Osisioma Ngwa Local Government
Secretariat, Aba, as early as 9a.m. on Thursday with different placards. Some of the
placards read in part: “Abia State Government: Stop Intimidation
Against Women”, “Abia State Government: We say no to illegal extortion”,
“Abia State Government: Enough is Enough”, “Abia State Government:
Remember Aba Women Riot of 1929”
Speaking to newsmen during the
protest, Mrs. Loveth Henry, a stakeholder in the market, said the State
government took them to Court for their refusal to pay an imposed tax of
N3,600, to state government revenue agents in addition to other
taxation imposed by the revenue agents, such as: Infrastructure levy of
N2,000, Sanitation levy of N1,000, Central levy of N1,000, Zonal levy of
N500. According to her, upon all the levies they pay to the state
government, the market has no light and not easily accessible because
of bad roads and that any repair to be carried out by the authority
attracts an additional payment of N5,000
Another protester who
gave her name as Edna, said “Aba market women are tired of paying all
sorts of levies.it was because of our refusal to pay the new taxation
that all sorts of intimidation were unleashed on us and they have taken
us to court in order to force us to pay through court process”. The
traders contended that as the matter is still pending before the
Magistrate Court, the same group of revenue agents came into the market
again and told them that whether they like it or not they must pay the
tax.
Another protester who did not want her name in print wondered
how the state government would impose tax totaling over N10,000 on a
woman whose ware does not worth N15,000, as most of them are petty
traders. She called on the state government to address this issue of tax
imposition by state revenue agents in Aba and the use of court to
perpetrate their acts. According to her the court has sat for three
times and it was only on the day of the protest that the State Counsel
appeared and wondered how a government would turn a deaf ear to cries of
intimidation by her citizens. The case, however, was adjourned to
Thursday next week.
Adding her voice, the Executive Director of
African Centre For Human Advancement and Resource Support
(CHARS-Africa), Amaka Biachi, condemned the excessive extortion by Abia
state revenue agents and insisted that the call for more taxes and
levies was analogical to the continuous milking of an almost dead
cow.She also decried the decadence of the market infrastructures and
reminded all and sundry that the reduction in flow of traders from
neighbouring states has drastically affected trading in Aba as traders
no longer visit Aba for trading concerns as before since all the roads
are impassable.
Reacting to the development, Comrade Cassius
Ukwuegbe, of Human Rights, Justice & Peace Foundation (HRJPF),
lamented on the state government’s insensitivity to several appeals from
Aba residents on the intimidation by revenue agents. He said the state
government should address the issue before it turns to a riot,
reminiscent of what happened in 1929, when women revolt broke out and
thousands of Igbo women from the Bende District , Umuahia and other
places in eastern Nigeria traveled to the town of Oloko to protest
against the Warrant Chiefs whom they accused of restricting the role of
women in the government. According to him, women react faster than men
because they bear the brunt of the societal ills.He said the Aba Women's
Riots of 1929, was a revolt organized by women to redress social,
political, and economic grievances. As a result of the protest, the
position of women in society was greatly improved and urged the state
government to urgently address the women’s grievances.
Source: NigerianVoice
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