Senate Wants Lagos, Others To Get 1% Of VAT Allocation Over Violence, Looting
By Taiye Lawal
Nigerian Senate on Tuesday called on the federal government to allocate one percent of the Value Added Tax to states affected by violence and looting that ended the EndSars protests.
Biodun Olujimi -representing Ekiti South constituency – and Gershom Bassey – representing Cross River South Senatorial District, sponsored motions suggesting that the allocation will help repair damaged properties in states that were witnessed arson and looting due to the protest.
States such as Lagos, Ondo, Osun, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom witnessed some level of destruction.
While Olujimi tagged her motion ‘Urgent need for the federal government to assist Lagos State Government in rebuilding its infrastructure’ Bassey tagged his own ‘Mayhem visited on the ancient city of Calabar the first capital of Nigeria on 23rd and 24th October 2020’.
The lawmakers noted that private and public assets destroyed by hoodlums in Lagos were estimated to be in the region of over one trillion naira by the Governor of Lagos State Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Bassey also decried the looting of warehouses in Calabar, attack on the residence of some serving and past federal lawmakers, WAEC office, among others.
The Senate also urged the federal government to set up a visitation panel to assess the level of destruction of public and private assets in the states.
The request is coming less than 24 hours after the UK parliament debated an e-petition signed against the Nigerian government demanding sanctions on officials guilty of human rights abuses.
