Food Supply: NGO calls on govt to stop multiple taxation, roadblocks

By Gabriel Ewepu and Alice Ekpang – Abuja

A Non-governmental Organization, NGO, Joint Mobile Sanitation Agency of Nigeria, JOMSAN, weekend, called the Federal Government to stop multiple taxation and roadblocks mounted on federal highways in order to enhance smooth food transportation and supply across the country.

This was stated by the President, JOMSAN, Dr Nnamdi Ogbogbo, at a workshop on ‘Building Partnership for Food Security in Nigeria’, held in Abuja.

Ogbogbo explained that the workshop was held in partnership with the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, and National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, whose aim is to eradicate multiple taxations and stop all illegal roadblocks by bringing uniformity among all 774 local government revenue contractors in the Mobile Advert Industry.

READ ALSO: Hoodlums hold Customs officials hostage, snatch gun from soldiers in Ogun

He said: “There is a need to introduce policies that can help combat food insecurity in the country occasioned by illegal and fake levies and tariffs by touts on the nation’s highways in the name government revenue”.

“It is the light of the above that JOMSAN, a government-approved NGO is calling on the federal, state, the local government, security agencies, the Nigeria Police, DSS, Civil Defence Corps and the Nigeria Customs Service to join us in this war against multiple taxation and the blocking of federal highways in order to bring back sanity to our roads and enhance the food supply chain and ensure the ease of doing business in our country.”

Ogbogbo also said stopping vehicles on the highways is to check sale of unapproved, fake clearance certificates and the use of unauthorized associations to certify local government permits, and that will henceforth stop and be a thing of the past.

“JOMSAN have branches in the 36 states of the federation to ensure the success of our assignment. My administration will introduce the use of Marshals which will be recruited among the youths who will undergo professional training and orientation”, he added.

He called for government and the general public’s support and cooperation to ensure that they record a huge success in this pursuit.

“We are calling on the federal and state governments to assist us in this battle with the necessary logistics and funding if we are to effectively carry out the directives of the National Assembly and ALGON/NULGE to eradicate multiple taxation and stop all illegal roadblocks and bring uniformity among all 774 local government revenue contractors in the Mobile Advert Industry.

“I will also ensure that members get health and life insurance while they are members of this body. The welfare of our members will be paramount in my dispensation”, he stated.

According to him in the area of discipline of members, he would want them to be civil in their approach to clients, drivers, and the general public, and go about their business with utmost decorum and well dressed at all times, they must eschew fighting and quarreling and ensure that disagreements end in dialogue.

“The penalty for flouting any of these directives is suspension or expulsion from the organization”, he warned.

Vanguard News Nigeria

The post Food Supply: NGO calls on govt to stop multiple taxation, roadblocks appeared first on Vanguard News.