Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has said the President
\nMohammadu Buhari led All Progressives Congress (APC) federal
\ngovernment desire was to tax Nigerians to death, saying; \u201cNigerians
\nmust resist any attempt to impose new tax on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The governor described the federal government\u2019s plan to increase the
\ncost of data as wicked, adding that \u201cMost Nigerians are still alive
\ntoday because they are kept busy by their access to social media. They
\nrelieve themselves of the burden of hunger and despair, placed on them
\nby the federal government\u2019s lack of policy direction by reading news
\nand jokes, chatting with friends, watch comedy movies, etc. Denying
\nthem of this opportunity through increment in the cost of internet
\nsubscription will mean that the federal government deliberately wants
\nmany Nigerians, especially the youths to die of depression.\u201d<\/p>\n
He hailed the Senate for directing the National Communication
\nCommission (NCC) to suspend the planned increment, saying; \u201cThe
\ngovernment must be sensitive to the plight of the people. Today,
\ndespite all the taxes and increments in services rendered by federal
\ngovernment agencies, minimum wage has remained at N18, 000 while
\nmillions of jobs have been lost. Do they want Nigerians to pay with
\ntheir blood?\u201d<\/p>\n
In a release issued in Ado-Ekiti on Wednesday, by his Special
\nAssistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka,
\nGovernor Fayose said \u201cIf the only way the federal government believes
\nit can take Nigeria out of recession is to impose obnoxious taxes that
\nwill further impoverish the people, the federal government is not
\nbeing fair to Nigerians.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said; \u201cUnder 20 months of Buhari\u2019s government, petrol price was
\nincreased from N87 to N145 per litre, kerosene; diesel and gas price
\nwas increased, electricity tariff was increased, N50 stamp duty was
\nintroduced on bank customers, 9% tax for the use of communication
\nservices like calls, SMS, MMS and data usage from telecommunication
\nservice providers; internet service providers and Pay TV Stations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is also under this APC government that N65 levy was imposed on
\nevery withdrawal on ATM, various bank charges introduced, custom
\nduties increased, increment of VAT from five per cent to 10 per cent
\ncontemplated, cost of vehicle plate numbers and drivers licence
\nincreased, and now cost of internet subscription is to be increased
\ntoo.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs this government out to tax Nigerians to death?\u201d<\/p>\n
While condemning the proposed increment in the cost of data, Governor
\nFayose said it was strange that the federal government came with the
\nidea less than three weeks after the Minister of Information and
\nCulture, Lai Mohammed complained about the damage being done to the
\nimage of the Buhari\u2019s government by the social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout three weeks ago, Lai Mohammed told Nigerians that social media
\nwas the greatest nightmare of the federal government and now, we are
\nbeing told that federal government has told telecommunication
\nproviders to increase the cost of internet subscription. Is this not a
\nway of indirectly restricting Nigerians from using social media?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey tried to gag Nigerians, using the failed social media bill, now
\nthey want to use increment of internet subscription to achieve what
\nthey could not achieve with the social media bill last year. Nigerians
\nmust say no to this and I am standing with the youths of Nigeria to
\nsay no to any increment in the cost of data,\u201d Fayose said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has said the President Mohammadu Buhari led All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government desire was to tax Nigerians to death, saying; \u201cNigerians must resist…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n