FIRS seals off Ex-Benue State Governor, George Akume’s hotel over unpaid tax [Read Details]

The Federal Inland Revenue Service on Thursday sealed off the Haf Haven Hotel, located at No24 Atiku Abubakar Way, Makurdi, belonging to a former Governor of Benue State, Senator George Akume, and his wife, Regina, over unpaid tax.
The FIRS enforcement team, led by Chinazor Edeh, said the hotel had refused to remit Value Added Tax to the Federal Government since 2011.
He gave the management of the hotel 30 minutes to do the payment before executing a warrant on them.
The hotel, according to the FIRS team, is owing about N13,518,493.00 unpaid tax liabilities.
The amount was made up of unpaid/unremitted liabilities of the hotel in Company Income Tax, Withholding Tax and VAT between 2011 to 2016.
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The FIRS team had some challenges sealing off the facility as its management led by Mrs. Margaret Hinger insisted that the hotel did not owe.
Hinger admitted that the hotel was aware of the tax liability saying there was delay in the payment of the said VAT because the figures were duplicated by the audit firm mandated to audit the its accounts.
Hinger said,’’We have already paid the sum of N700,000.00 to the tax office in Makurdi and I am appealing to you to unseal our hotel as we are willing to pay the over N13 million.”
Hinger put a call to Mrs. Regina Akume who is the Chief Executive Officer of the hotel to speak with the leader of the FIRS team but Edeh refused to speak with her on the phone. He insisted that unless the payment of the full tax liabilities was made, nothing would stop the execution of the warrant.