The Senior Special Assistant to the chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, on Community Development, Yunusa Yusuf, has said the leadership of the council has not ceded its right to revenue collection to a third party.
Yusuf, who disclosed this while briefing journalists in Abuja, said anyone found collecting revenue on behalf of the council without its authorization will be severely dealt with.
He pointed out that there have been several court judgments and even the AMAC Chairman, Christopher Maikalangu, is restrained, as his are hands tied from relinquishing powers of collecting revenue to a third party.
According to Yusuf, “the Supreme Court judgments have been upheld against DOAS. In fact, the judgment has asked for a complete clamp down and closure of DOAS. We know the Minister to be a law abiding citizen.
“And we’re standing by the law guiding the local governments authority, the area councils in FCT, and our bylaws.”
He maintained that AMAC residents
should only pay their revenue into the account that carries the demand notice of AMAC only.
“Nobody should forward an individual account, or any company account for you to pay your revenue, or else when the task force team comes to you. Any taxpayer who pays to FCT Department of Outdoor Advertisements and Signages, DOAS, we’ll pay twice.”
“We repeat, we are capable, we have the technical know-how, we have the manpower and we are ready to work for the people who have voted for us. I want to say that Maikalangu remains grateful for all the support us and the residents of AMAC and we are ready to do whatever it will take to give them the dividends of democracy,” he said.
A copy of the judgment for suit no: FCT/HC/NY/CV/1095/2019 sighted by the Abuja Inquirer stated that FCT DOAS has no business in regulating revenue and creating such is multiplicity of agencies and double taxation.
Recall that the leadership of DOAS had on November 29, launched the FCT/State Mobile Advertisement and Haulage permits for 2023 financial year, to harmonise tax collection in the territory.
Also in a recent chat with journalists, the Director of DOAS, Dr Adam Babagana, admitted that the only fundamental problem hindering DOAS from achieving success is the lack of the legal framework that will enable the agency function like other signage advertisement agencies found in 26 states of the federation.
