The All Progressives Congress in Oyo state has described the reported introduction of taxes payable by sponsors and organizers of social events to the state government as anti-people, ill-conceived and unacceptable calling on Governor to order a reversal of the policy immediately.

Reports of the state government coming up with a policy to make it mandatory for residents to pay varying sums of money in taxes to enable them get permits for social events were confirmed on Wednesday by officials who picked the calls that were put through the phone contacts contained in a printed sticker apparently released to announce the price regime for the new taxes.

In a statement issued on Wednesday and made available to journalists in Ibadan by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, Oyo APC lauded the federal government over the latest steps taken to retrieve some of its landed properties which have been hijacked and sold by the Makinde administration since 2019.

“The recent public announcement made by the Federal Ministry of Housing in which the government at the centre requested Gov. Makinde and Oyo state government to vacate its land and properties in various locations across Ibadan and Saki did not only vindicate the APC in the state which has been at dagger drawn with Gov. Makinde over cases of state-sponsored land grabbing, the development also exposed the governor as being guilty of many allegations of abuse of office in relations to hijacking of land belonging to governments and private individuals as well as corporate organizations.

“The general public would recall that our Party warned against the grabbing of land belonging to ARCEDEM, NIHORT, Radio Nigeria and others in Ibadan by Gov. Makinde but he turned deaf ears. Now that the federal government has requested Gov. Makinde and his agents to vacate those landed properties and many others across the state, we do not expect any resistance from the culprits because the position of the law is clear on this as none of these encroachment or total hijack was done in the overriding public interest.

“Also, we call on Gov. Makinde to rescind his decision to start forcing residents to pay inherent taxes before hosting any social event in any part of the state. This call became imperative because the introduction of entertainment taxes, at this time, is akin to pushing the citizens to the wall. We all know that the nation’s fragile economy is biting hard on the masses while they bring the resilience in them to the fore by creating happiness for themselves through family and friends gathering in the name of social events.

“The civil servants, artisans, business owners, commercial motorists (including danfo, okada and tricycle drivers or operators) are already burdened with taxes by the state government and asking them to pay entertainment taxes at the same time would further subject them to hardship and frustration. Therefore, we urge the state government to suspend the policy immediately.” APC said.