Motorists in Anambra State have expressed concern over the scarcity of vehicle number plates in the state.
Some motorists told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews on Sunday in Awka that they were going through hardship to obtain or renew vehicle number plates.
Mr Uzoma Okenwa, who bought a new car, said he waited for the registration of his vehicle but was told that there were no number plates in the state.
Okenwa said he was advised to wait as the Anambra State Board of Internal Revenue was undergoing some restructuring to address revenue losses associated with motor vehicle administration.
“Because of this ugly development, I decided to park my vehicle pending when things will normalise, since it is a clear risk to drive the new vehicle without a number plate,” he said.
Another motorist, Mrs Grace Igbokwe, said she went to renew her expired number plate but was told to pay and collect manual receipt.
“I was unsettled at this information because the usual system I know is that the state Board of Internal Revenue would usually issue e-receipt, after a customer had paid through the bank,” she said.
Igbokwe said that in order not to fall into wrong hands, she would either travel to Asaba, Delta State or Enugu for the renewal.
Investigation by NAN shows that motor licensing agents now encourage customers to make payment and collect manual receipts, even when their information are not uploaded to national database due to the hiccups.
Mr Achike Emejulu-Joe, the Chairman of Anambra Internal Revenue Service (AIRS), told NAN that it was not true that motor number plates were scarce in the state.
Emejulu-Joe said there were innovations which the revenue service introduced to make for accountability and control financial leakages through the number plate administration.
“Because of the leakages, Anambra State Internal Revenue Board recently opened a new trading/escrow bank account into which vehicle registration money should be paid into,” he said.
Emejulu-Joe blamed the revenue loss on the operations of Oliswarren Associates Limited; a revenue contractor to the state government.
He alleged that the firm had been frustrating the effectiveness of the innovation because of its interest.
“The governor has bailed us out three times because we cannot pay Federal Road Safety Commission for the number plates we received from them; we are supposed to be making profit but that is yet to be.
“We opened this account with UBA in 2017 but nobody paid into it because the contractor worked against it, since the firm had been around for about 12 years and knew how he manipulates his portal which we cannot monitor,” he said.
Emejulu-Joe alleged that the contractor raked in over N4 billion yearly from the sales of number plate, but only remit a paltry N400 million to the state government.
He assured that with the innovation, the revenue board was coming up and things would soon get more transparent and better.
In his reaction, Chief Olisa Aniunoh, Chairman of Oliswarren Associates, Awka, said that his company was not involved in revenue collection but only an ICT solution provider to Anambra State government.
“Oliswarren was contracted by the Anambra Government in 2014 to develop a platform that would automate and manage all the processes of motor vehicle documentation and administration,” he said.
Aniunoh explained that all government revenue from the number plates was usually paid into the Consolidated Anambra Revenue Account through Pay-Direct.
“My company developed the Anambra Motor Vehicle Administration System (AMVAS), a web-based platform to ensure that all motor vehicle documentation and administration was no longer done manually but electronically and curb leakages,” he explained.
He maintained that the state government collected its revenue through an account called Pay-Direct owned and managed by Inter-switch.
“Oliswarren did not bring Inter-switch or manage Pay-Direct; it is rather unfortunate that the chairman is plotting to bring in his relation to takeover our intellectual property as ICT Company.
“Where does Oliswarren come in, where does collecting money for government and shortchanging it come in, we don’t collect money and remit money to government, rather we get commission for our services,” he said.
He regretted that the chairman was involved in what he tagged `outright blackmail and mischief’, to malign his company and appealed to Gov. Willie Obiano of the state to look into the matter.
“What we are doing is transparent and straight forward, Oliswarren does not control any money; what we have is the Intellectual Property Right, as an ICT company and not a revenue contractor,” he said.
Aniunoh said that the move by the board to direct motor licence authorities (licence agents) to source money and buy number plates would return the state to the era of number plates racketeering.
“The motor licence agents are civil servants, and do not have the type of money that the board wants, it wants them to source for bulk number plate payment.
