A Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Policing Nigeria Awareness Initiative (PNAI) seeks to improve Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the Federal Government through intelligence gathering via combating multiple taxation in the society.
The Chairman of the initiative, Mr Apkarakwu Egbe, made the disclosure at a media briefing during the inauguration of the Lagos State Directorates of the PNAI, Policing Nigeria Marshal Presidential Special Taskforce in Festac, Lagos State.
Egbe said that the NGO’s major project, the Presidential Special Policing Marshals Project, would promote intelligence gathering to support operational effort of security agencies in Nigeria.
According to him, it is also important to combat multiple taxation in the country particularly, Lagos State, as a way of promoting revenue remittance to government coffers.
“This project has been in existence since 2009 on official capacity and has received presidential endorsement from different presidential desks.
“The project has identified several reasons why the government is not able to improve on IGR across the country,” he said.
Egbe said that some of the activities causing reduction of revenue generation in Nigeria include national security awareness, revenue non remittance, economy sabotage, oil and gas theft, Illegal importation among many others.
He said that part of the strategies to improve IGR would include “operation show remittance evidence” which would automatically make business owners remit to the government in whatever capacity.
“If our strategies are achieved, we will be helping the Federal Republic of Nigeria boost revenue generation across the country as well as enhance communal peaceful co-existence promotion,” the chairman said.
Egbe said that the promotion of revenue generation in Nigeria became important to PNAI when the country degenerated to the level of borrowing money from any available source and even dormant accounts.
“So, this is what led PNAI to galvanise support across communities to see that the Federal Government is supported.
“The Presidential Special Policing Marshals Project has membership opened to organisations such as Importers Association of Nigeria (IMAN), Integrity Conflict Control Group, Crises Control Foundation, among others as development partners in synergy with PNAI.
“This project is not funded by the government but by duly registered NGO’s involved of different stakeholders with over 1,000 registered members of this synergy,” he said.
The PNAI chairman said that one of the major achievements the project would give to Nigerians as a product was creating an intelligence reporting mechanism for the necessary security agencies.
“Therefore, we are calling on Nigerians to take advantage of this project to report intelligence by walking into security agencies and demanding from them, telephone numbers for the purpose of intelligence reporting.
“The Freedom of Information Bill gives citizens the right to report any security agency that refuses to give them those numbers for the purpose of reporting intelligence for official action to be taken,” Egbe said.
He hoped that all government agencies saddled with the responsibility of making use of such intelligence gathered from the communities would align with this presidential special call to duty.
“Any agency that is not rising to the occasion will definitely be made to know their duties either through court actions or media trial,” the chairman said.
Egbe said that PNAI activities had been covert operations before now but it had become necessary to open up their activities to the public following the degrading level of insecurity in the country.
Also speaking, Col. Reuben Nwako, Lagos State Coordinator of PNAI, said that he would ensure that seminars are regularly organised for its members to keep them abreast of the strategies of gathering information.
Nwako said that he would bring his military experience and expertise to solving any challenge that may arise in the course of attaining their aims and objectives. (NAN)
