Following the expiration of the seven-day ultimatum issued by the Osun State Internal Revenue Service to private organizations and public establishments to pay up their tax arrears, the revenue agency has shut down the Obafemi Awolowo University OAU, Ile-Ife for owing N1.8 billion tax.
Led by a top official of the agency, Mr. Oladipo Babatunde, the university was shut by official of the Revenue Task Force around 7:00 on Wednesday morning.
It was gathered that the Senate Building, the Administrative Block and the Bursary were part of the facilities the agency sealed off before proceeding to the university main gate to put it under lock and key.
Other tax defaulting establishments including a construction company, Sammiya Construction Company and a money lending company, LAPO Agric located along Gbongon/Ibadan Road, Osogbo apart from apart from the OAU were sealed off by the officials of the agency.
Speaking on the closure, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Tax Matters and Revenue Generation, Barr. Gbenga Akano, disclosed that OAU owed the state government about N1.8 billion, saying the state government had no choice than to seal the university after its management refused to meet up with the governement deadline for payment.
According to him, the money owed by the institution is outstanding unremitted PAYE withholding taxes and developments levy which he said had become due and payable since year 2015 and 2016.
He said: “It is callous and act of wickedness for any organization to refuse to pay taxes. We are all know that the state is suffering from financial malaria because of the meager in the Federal allocation orchestrated by the current economic recession.
“The Federal allocation is not sufficient not only to run government but also to meet the financial obligations of the State. We had earlier issued all the affected establishments seven-day ultimatum which was even given a wide media coverage and we expect every responsible organisations to come to us for dialogue.
“But as at this morning, OAU management refuse to approach us for any dialogue, they did not responded, while some of other affected companies have responded.
Sammya owed the state government about N5 millions, just as LAPO Agric owed N7 million. We have appealed to all the establishments and individuals owing the state government to pay but many of them refused to do so.”
In a swift reaction, the authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University, said the matter would soon be resolved.
In a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Mr. Abiodun Olanrewaju, the university said that the debt was inherited from the past administrations of the institution.
The statement read: “I must add this that the present university administration since 2017 has been paying consistently but the backlog of debt inherited from the past administrations is niw causing this little problem. Everything will be resolved by the grace of God. The school management is assuring the public that it will soon be resolved.”
