By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post)- There are indications that the Telecommunication companies are using the leadership of the National Assembly to frustrate the adhoc committee investigating tax evasion from carrying out their investigations.
This is evident in the setback suffered by way of postponement of the committee’s Public Hearing without concrete reasons.
Initial meetings were postponed from November 30th to December 7th and on Thursday another postponement was granted to December 14, 2017.
More worrisome is the attempts by some persons to keep the activities of the committee quiet from Nigerians as newsmen are being prevented on two occasions from covering the ad-Hoc committee’s activities in the National Assembly.
Sundiata Post recalls that the committee led by Hon Ahmad Abu from Niger State was constituted to investigate allegations of tax evasion and unsettled dues running into over 6.6 billion naira, stumbled into some disturbing claims from ‘Recording Artiste’ dominating the music scene who claim that they have been ripped off of money totaling over five billion naira.
The music artiste are alleging that their Hit tracks are often used by Telco’s who make billions of naira from their intellectual properties without commensurate payment reaching them.
After two failed attempts to bring together stakeholders in the Creative Industry and Telecommunication companies who have at one time pleaded for some time to get documents demanded by the committee in order to ascertain the veracity of claims made by the artistes, there are fears that the December 14 new date set for the meeting between all concerned parties may be postponed again.
Initial meetings were postponed from November 30th to December 7th and on Thursday another postponement was granted to December 14, 2017.
Worried by the unhealthy development, the committee chairman, Hon Ahmad Abu took to his twitter handle and vowed to seek redress for artiste so that they get reward for their intellectual property.