By Mike Adeyemi
The Union of Tipper and Quarry Associates of Nigeria, Kwara State chapter has bemoaned activities of quacks which is shortchanging the state economy.
Chairman of the association, Alhaji Ibrahim Magaji stated this while answering questions from our reporter in his office, on Friday.
According to him, ‘the activities of quackery has continued to affect our economy as huge revenue is being lost to this illegal act.
“For a long time now, Kwara tippers and quarries have been confounded by activities of illegal and unregistered operators who are bent on sabotaging the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) accruable to the government via our union.
“Often time we sought the services of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to clamp down on quackery in the business,” Magaji added.
“Despite all these measure puts in place, their activities have continued unabated and this has been a major problem for us in the state.
“We wants the Kwara State Government to help us in fighting quackery which has been a source of financial leakage,” he stressed.
He, however, noted that the union has been fulfilling it’s tax responsibility to the state government.
“We pay our revenue charges as and when due to Kwara State Government. We pay N200 per load of tipper and we have over 3,000 members in Kwara State.
“There are lots of challenges facing the union in the state parts of which is the unhealthy rivalry by the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).
“The immediate past government in the state intervened in the matter by calling us together, but the NURTW still vowed that they must regulate our activities.
“We are using this medium to appeal to the Kwara State Government to help settle this as it is our constitutional duty to handle tippers as it is embedded in the bylaw of our operations,” the union boss pointed out.
He then urged the state government to assist members of the union by giving them soft loans to boost their businesses.
