Former Speaker decries new tax regime in Ekiti State

Former Speaker of Ekiti House of Assembly and All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship aspirant, Hon Femi Bamisile, has criticised the new tax regime in Ekiti State, saying it is imposing hardship on the people...

Bamisile said that “with the new unrealistic tax being levied, the state governor has alienated himself from the people of Ekiti”.

The APC chieftain, who spoke during his visit to Igede Ekiti in the Irepodun/Ifelodun local council area of the state to distribute free petrol to commercial motorcyclists in the council, spoke against the backdrop of the taxes rolled out by the state government as part of efforts to boost the revenue of the state.

According to him, the series of taxes being allegedly imposed on the people by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government had distinguished the APC as a better political party to manage the state.

Bamisile said: “This gesture is part of our (APC) effort to make life bearable to the people and contribute to their economy. Now that the present government in the state has derailed and started alienating the people, then it will be easy for us to remove the PDP.

“We have to start a process of rebuilding our party. We have done our findings on why we lost the June 21, 2014 governorship poll. We lost because we did not connect the way we were expected to connect with the people despite former Governor Kayode Fayemi’s good performance.

“This is one of the reasons why I start campaigning now. We are interacting with artisans, civil servants, business people and politicians across party lines to aggregate their opinions on how best to approach the 2018 election. I want to emphasise that the task of achieving this requires collective efforts and this we must do to get to the Promised Land,” he said.

Bamisile added that the APC would draw inspiration from President Muhammadu Buhari’s electoral victory and work assiduously to dislodge any candidate to be fielded by the governor and his PDP rather than being complacent.

The APC chieftain told the supporters: “That President Buhari won the Presidency is not enough for our people here in Ekiti. We need to win Ekiti so that our members and the entire Ekiti people can have unfettered access to good governance.

“How many of our people can gain access to Buhari in Abuja? Though, the man has been doing well with the way he manages the country. We will work hard and ensure that we remove the PDP from the Government House in Ekiti.

“Very soon, we will start giving out Micro-credit to women and youths to set up businesses. Our own kind of empowerment won’t be the same with the poorly packaged Stomach Infrastructure that being used to deceive Ekiti people at present,” Bamisile said.