Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Despite the controversies his action has generated, Governor Nyesom Wike is not ready to give up the battle to take away collection of the Value Added Tax from the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS to Rivers and other states in the country.
The Rivers State Governor opened another flank in the VAT battled on Tuesday with a suit against the Federal government and Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS at the Supreme Court.
In the suit, Rivers State Government, through its attorney-general asked the apex court to set aside last week’s decision of Court of Appeal on the collection of value added tax (VAT)
The appellate court had in the decision delivered last Friday asked all parties not to act on a previous ruling from the Federal High Court which granted Rivers and other states the right to collect VAT within their boundaries pending the determination of an appeal lodged against the judgment by the FIRS.
But Rivers state, in its nine grounds of appeal, is praying the apex court to order that the substantive appeal by the FIRS, marked CA/PH/282/2021, and all other processes therein, be heard and determined by a new panel of the Court of Appeal.
In addition to the FIRS, the Attorney-General of the federation was cited as respondents in the appeal that Rivers State entered through its team of lawyers led by Emmanuel Ukala, SAN.
Governor Wike had earlier that Rivers will seek the final legal interpretation on the right to collect VAT between the Federal Government and its agency, the FIRS and the states at the Supreme Court