INVESTIGATION… Thugs rule in Rivers markets, force multiple illegal taxes on petty traders, as govt feigns ignorance

There are 98 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty, according to a report by the United Nations. To survive, many, especially women engage in petty trading in various markets. But the youths in Rivers State communities, who force traders to pay multiple illegal taxes, have become a stumbling block to local businesses. In this investigation, KELECHUKWU IRUOMA visited six markets in Port Harcourt to expose on camera, young men who extort traders.

On a Wednesday in May, the morning sun was already shining bright as early as 10:00 am. Miracle Onwuamaeze, 19, sits on an empty 15-litre paint bucket selling onions wrapped in white polythene nylons. The parcels of onions were placed on a stainless tray propped up by a white bucket.

She sells each wrap at N100, except the smaller ones kept in a blue sieve on the floor. Those are sold for N50. Onwuamaeze wakes up at 5:00 am on Wednesdays to sell at the popular Oil Mill Market in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State in southern Nigeria. Her favorite selling position is at the roadside along Port Harcourt-Aba road, while her mother sells in a stall inside the market.

From nowhere, three young men approached her, demanding market levies. While two of them requested N100, the other also asked for N100.

They threatened to seize her onions if she did not pay promptly. Left with no choice, she reluctantly gave them N200. The value of her entire wares were about N3,000, but she paid no fewer than nine groups of tax collectors that day.

“If I don’t pay, they will carry my goods to their office and when I get there, I will pay double the amount I am supposed to give them initially,” she said bitterly.

This is what Onwuamaeze and other traders at various markets in Rivers State go through on a daily basis. Local government councils in the state are responsible for the collection of taxes in markets, according to Nancy Iheduru, a former vice president of Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW), a non-governmental organization that advocates for the good business environment for women to operate and ensures their businesses grow. But community youths forcefully collect illegal taxes in the form of levies from traders, and they do not issue receipts. Traders who refuse to comply are harassed and their goods are seized.

A report from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that Rivers State has the second highest unemployment rate in Nigeria with 36.4 percent as at the third quarter of 2018, with an unemployed population of 1.6 million.

These unemployed youths and the elderly are those who commonly engage in petty trading to survive, but they are being harassed, frustrated and driven out of business by community youths who tax them illegally.

How multiple illegal taxations affect the informal sector

The informal sector is a major contributor to the Nigerian economy, accounting for a significant portion of employment and national Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Nigerian informal sector accounts for 65% of Nigeria’s 2017 GDP and employs over 75% of the country’s labour force.

Petty traders such as kiosk owners, fruit sellers, and roadside sellers are part of the informal sector, which is not subjected to government regulations. They are recognised as people who work in the informal sector, and who do not declare their earnings and pay no income taxes.

“I am not happy about how they are doing it [tax collection],” said Mercy Sylvanus, a mother of one who sells tubers of yam at the market in Rumuokoro. “Only one person should be collecting, not many people,” she suggested.

She seats on a stool in front of the tubers placed on the roadside as she calls the attention of passers-by along the busy Port Harcourt-Owerri road to patronise her. “The fees are illegal,” she lamented. “I pay N500 daily here and N7,000 every month to the council [Obio/Akpor local government]. When they [tax collectors] come, I give them money but any day I don’t have, they seize my tubers of yam. It is bad that they treat us that way.”

Traders extorted for selling on roadsides

In most markets in Rivers State, traders usually create space on the main road to sell their goods. They complain that shops and stalls provided by the government inside the markets are exorbitant to afford. A stall at the market, according to Sylvanus, is over N200,000 annually.

Hence, many resort to selling by the roadside. But community youths tell traders the government doesn’t want them to sell by the roadside, and their job is to drive away roadside vendors except those who are ready to pay levies to the government. Many traders have discovered that this narrative is false, because in many cases, after paying the daily levies, the traders are still sent out of the roads by the government task force.

The reporter was at Oil Mill Market as early as 7:00 am to witness the scene of how youths struggled for tickets to collect levies in the market. “Na so dem dey fight because of the useless money dem dey collect,” a woman selling soft drink said in pidgin. “Sometimes dem dey wound themselves.”

The Police also use the community youths to collect their levies from the traders. They still tell the traders they collect the levy because they sell on the roadside. “Give me police money,” a woman wearing a dreadlock wig told a trader at Rumuokoro. She collects N200 from each trader that sells along the roadside.

She was harassing the trader and trying to seize her goods. When she noticed she was being filmed, she quickly stopped and left. She was accompanied by a young man whose wheelbarrow was used to seize the goods of traders who refuse to pay.

“We know selling here may be illegal,” Sylvanus admits. “They come to harass us that the government said we should not sell here and they still come to collect money from us. We don’t know who the government is. If they know they are the government, they should stop collecting money from us.”

Amaka Asiegbu has been selling polythene nylons and condiments at the Rumuodumaya market for two years. She used to pay N200,000 annually for a stall inside the main market she rented. “But my children are now grown and I can’t afford to pay that again,” she said.

“The levies being collected here are affecting me. They come every day and I pay N1,000. Every month, I pay N5,000. They say they are the owners of the land. The Police people say because it’s walkway and they collect money from us for using the walkway. The community youths insult us and they must surely collect the money whether we like it or not,” she lamented.

Women are harassed

The reporter experienced a scene where a woman in her early 60s selling periwinkles was harassed by a tax collector who she refused to give N200. She begged that she had not sold and that she be given more time to sell. The tax collector was adamant, and moved to seize the stainless basin filled with periwinkles, but the woman held on to it. This resulted in a struggle between both parties. He then decided to throw the whole periwinkles on the floor. With tears on her face, she knelt and picked them up.

Lucy Uco who sells crayfish said she pays N800 daily for levies. According to her, she was almost stripped naked one day and injured. She said even though she may not have made sells for the day, collectors come to tax her.