Property bill: Bini youths vow showdown with Edo lawmakers

By SIMON EBEGBULEM

BENIN CITY—The Property Tax Bill before the Edo State House of Assembly is creating tension in the state, as Bini youths have vowed a showdown with the lawmakers, if the bill is passed into law.

They described the bill as ill-conceived and an attempt to foist further taxes on the Binis of Edo South senatorial district by the state government.

Chairman of the state Board of Internal Revenue, Chief Useni Elamah, had last week, explained that the proposed Property Tax Assembly was targeted at the rich in the state, saying that it was geared towards collecting more taxes from the rich with a view to uplifting the lives of the poor.

Benin Youth Council, BYC, in a statement by Mr. Felix Omodamwen, described as diversion- ary, the claim by proponents of the bill that it would create employment and urged the lawmakers to focus on bills that will tackle kidnapping, unemployment and re-awaken comatose industries and not to impoverish “our landlords, who are suffocating by the alarming security and economic problems in the state.

“Much as we desire a higher revenue for government to utilise, we will not succumb to pedestrian blackmails, like the one being touted that the tenement rate bill will create employment.

“Apart from touts and brigands, who would be constituted into task force to compel compliance, the bill is to say the least, mischievous, unpopular and ill-conceived and mischievously projected by some opportunists, who are not from Edo South.”