by Anike Jacobs

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola has called the PDP governorship candidate in the state, Jimi Agbaje, a tax evader.

Fashola disclosed this while speaking at the 8th Annual Stakeholder Taxation Conference in Ikeja on Wednesday.

Fashola said Agbaje’s pharmaceutical company has not paid the state government four years Land Use Charge (LUC) tax and that such a person is not qualified to govern Lagos.

According to him: “LUC is ground rent and tenement rate as they were consolidated. I know that you have to vote next month but look at that candidate that would need to take over from me and be careful of who to vote for. You will remember that in 2007, he (Agbaje) claimed that he was in DPA and later crossed to PDP.

“You know that he manages a pharmacy called Jaykay Pharmacy, located at 9, Randle Close, Apapa. His pharmacy has not paid Land Use Charge for 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

“They paid in 2013 and 2014 because they discovered that the election would be holding in 2015. His pharmacy owes this state N1, 629, 064.62. Let us do that mathematics to see how many facilities that funds would have provided in our hospitals and stationary in our schools. But this was the same person who was complaining that the state government spent three per cent of its budget on education.

“Local Government is responsible for the management of the primary schools and yet he has withheld their taxes. This is the man who wants to be your next governor. And I will advice you that you avoid deception and tax evader,” he stated.

Sola