In response to allegations that the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, MOUAU, was not paying Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxes to the state, the Abia State government has promised to drop the lawsuit it filed against the university.
Due to alleged unremitted PAYE tax, the state’s Board of Internal Revenue, or BIR, filed a lawsuit against the University two years ago.
During a courtesy call with the university’s management team, Governor Alex Otti made a promise to stop the State Board of Internal Revenue from pursuing legal action against the university.
He promised that the case would be dropped in order for the university and the state to investigate it further and come to a final resolution outside of court.”As a government, we would never bring you to court,” he declared.
We are going to investigate it and stop it because it existed before us. It is not logical. “I will give the BIR Chairman instructions to end the lawsuit.” Nothing is too difficult for us to sit down and fix.
Earlier, the university’s vice chancellor, professor Maduebibisi Iwe, had urged the governor to get involved in the legal action brought by the Abia State Board of Internal Revenue against the university for unpaid PAYE taxes.
Prof. Iwe claimed they were paying the governor a courtesy call. Additionally, he pleaded with the governor to move quickly to give the university a Certificate of Occupancy.