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The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, has challenged the state Governor, Babatunde Fashola, to present the receipt of the make-up tax the politician is supposed to have paid after being publicly accused of evading land use charges on his business premises.
“There is no truth in this latest piece of misinformation that the governor is spreading around. He lied again, giving the impression that my company paid money after his initial outburst and his first lie.
“JayKay Pharmaceuticals has not paid a kobo since the day Fashola launched his initial allegation. To say that I have now paid N500,000 is a lie. My company sticks to the facts contained in its initial publication, which encapsulated its reaction to the governor’s initial falsehood.”
Agbaje, who last week denied paying N500,000 subsequent to the governor first
going to town with the allegation, said neither he nor the pharmaceutical company he founded had taken such a step. Fashola had last weekend alleged that despite contesting the announcement he made on January 27, the PDP governorship candidate had paid N500,000 out of the total sum of N1.6 million reportedly owed from the backlog of three years’ Land Use Charge tax.
“Good enough, Fashola is a lawyer, so he knows the maxim that: He that alleges must prove. So I challenge the governor to show Lagosians the receipt issued to either me or JayKay Pharmacy since February? When he told his first lie,”
Agbaje said at the weekend in a statement by his Director of Publicity, Felix Oboagwina.
He also found it strange that the governor would equate an individual with a corporate entity.
“It is basic law, civil, contract, criminal, that an individual is different from a corporate body, and one cannot benefit from or suffer for what the other has done.
“And I shall continue to wonder why a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) would insist on roping me in on what a company has purportedly done, even though he knows quite well what the law says,” he said.
According to him, JayKay Pharmacy continued to maintain that it owed the government no land use charges, saying the company had noticed a matter of overbilling, written a protest letter to the state authorities, and was waiting for government’s response to the matter.
Agbaje said Fashola’s latest outburst exposed the real reason behind the governor’s belly-aching, something he attributed to reprisals for him criticising the regime. The PDP candidate reiterated his earlier arguments that Lagos deserves to be better governed.
“The result of Fashola’s efforts still puts Lagos as the 137th of 140 cities listed in the liveability index by the ranking of the Economic intelligence Unit (EIU). This means that if you take 140 cities worldwide where people consider good to live in, Lagos is the fourth worst place to live in.
“Apart from this, a World Bank survey shows that of the 36 states in Nigeria, Lagos is still the worst state in terms of the ease of securing Building Permits. It is still on record too that the party, All Progressives Congress (APC) Fashola represents has delivered less than 5,000 units till date. It is still on record that more students in Lagos fail WAEC than those who pass.”
Accusing the APC-led government of failing to tackle corruption, Agbaje alleged: “Even when we consider corruption, we are aware that Fashola is yet to challenge anyone for corruption at the state level.
“Or is he saying Lagos is 100 per cent corruption-free? Yet he goes about castigating the federal government. He should walk his talk and lead by example -expose and prosecute high-ranking corrupt officials in his government and the state civil service.
Mr. Paul Ojenagbon, a public affairs commentator, wrote from Lagos.
