By YUSUF MOHAMMED
The People’s Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje has promised residents of the state that he would reverse the increment of 400% on Land Use Charge by the APC-led government in the state if elected governor.
He made this known to Business Hallmark last week Tuesday at the 70th anniversary of the Nigerian Tribune held at Sheraton Hotel, Lagos.
Agbaje who is contesting for the governorship seat in Lagos for the fourth time, said that the he would reverse that decision by the APC led government if the people vote him.
When asked what he would do if he becomes governor of Lagos about the Land Use Charge, he said, “That would be reversed. The hike was unacceptable. It is unrealistic. Imagine you are a land lord and you are given Land Use Charge that is higher than the rent you are going to collect. It does not make sense. It is out of touch with reality.
Asked if it is part of his campaign, Mr. Agbaje said, “Yes it is. We talk about multiple taxes, we talk about levies. We say that must stop. We must unite taxes and levies. You see what you have in Lagos is working to the answer. You have a situation where government has decided it wants to collect 100 naira. Now you less than 50 % of people who are paying 100 naira and it says well since we want to collect 100 naira then the few people that we have caught must pay that 100 naira. So you begin to load different levies and different taxes and all. Whereas you should work harder in expanding that tax net rather than over burdening those that are caught in the trap already.
The PDP candidate also spoke about his chances in the forthcoming election. According to him, he is more prepared than he was in 2015.
“This time around we are more prepared than you can imagine. We got it right the last time. Yes we can say we weren’t declared the winner but let me just say that this time we are winning. We had a base the last time. A very firm base and since then, we have added more to that base. For us it can only be better. We have learnt our lessons from the last election and this time around we are ready. I am more prepared than you can imagine.
“Don’t forget that in the result that was declared in 2015, we had some nearly 700,000 votes. That’s not social media votes. Those were votes on the ground. I am saying this time around it will be more. I am very confident that we are going to win. Mark my words, we are going to win. We are going to win fair and square.”
Mr. Agbaje alleged that his posters and billboards are still being destroyed by members of the ruling All progressives Congress, APC.
He said, “Nothing has changed about the destruction of my posters. They have gone from removing posters to destroying billboards. But we are not going to stop. They are that desperate. There are even some places we want to put up our board and we are told by agencies that we cannot put them up. Some of our people have been arrested trying to put up billboards. So it is all part of intolerance. And like I say, these people do not practice democracy. Democracy is about choice. It is about selling yourself. It is about the best idea. But there is a lot of intolerance. It is not going to change anything. Posters are not going to vote. It is the people that are going to vote. We are going to put back our posters.
We will put our boards up and run our jingles. Nobody is going to stop us this time around.”
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