Ebonyi state Governor, Chief David Umahi has said he has no regret preaching that federal government should be collecting Value Added Taxes(VATs) and share to states of the federation.
The Governor stated this on Tuesday during the inauguration of south east leaders of the Christian Association in Nigeria(CAN) with his Senior Special Adviser(SSA) on Religion and Welfare, Rev. Fr. Abraham Nwali as the Chairman.
The inauguration was performed by the President of CAN, Rev. Samson Ayokunle at the Christian Ecumenical centre, Abakaliki.
He called on CAN and all the traditional institutions in south east to begin to sensitize the people of the zone on the dangers of the sit-at-homes being ordered by the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB).
He said “the sit-at-home is not biting the south East Governors. If you sit-at-home, some of their children are outside the country, it’s not biting them. If the body of Christ and all the Traditional institutions should rise up to let them know the dangers. We fear that a splinter group may come and toe this thing we are sitting on Mondays, Tuesdays and on Fridays and on Sunday sit-at-home by the Christian body.
“Another sit-at-home on Wednesdays and Thursdays, yes, I am hearing that and then the end would have come and would have become very clear to our people. I never see when people brought war upon themselves. So, I plead with the Christian body to announce the dangers they are bringing to ourselves.
“Nobody is sitting at home in the West, in the North, in the South South. We are only sitting at home here, what do we intend to achieve? Nothing!
“We are killing ourselves and we say we are agitating, agitating for what? So, it’s a very terrible thing. When our people push for restructuring, yes, I agree with restructuring but it has to be administrative restructuring, I will continue to preach it. Our states that are very weak must be taken care of before we say let everybody control their resources.
“There was a time we were house boys and house girls and they were very helpful in service to other states. It is time to be built up before you can collect their VATs separately. I will continue to preach that allow the federal government to collect VAT and share for us”.
Earlier, the President of CAN, Rev. Samson Ayokunle charged leaders to render service to their people so as to be remembered when they leave office.
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