Imo Banks On Strike Over Tax

Customers were stranded yesterday in Imo State as a result of the strike embarked upon by all the banks in the state.
Our correspondent who visited some of the banks met them under lock and key while some customers sat patiently outside the bank premises hoping for an end to the strike.
Most of the bank UNTOLD IGBO NEWS visited declined comment on the matter, but a security personnel from one of the new generation banks who pleaded anonymity told our correspondent that the banks actually embarked on to protest excessive taxation by the state government.
According to our source, the state government asked banks to pay N200,000 monthly, amounting to N1.4million annually as tax, by but the banks’ union in the state, UNTOLD IGBO NEWS gathered, considered this figure too high and called a strike.
When the state commissioner for finance, Mr. Chike Okafor, was called on the phone to clarify the matter, his mobile phone rang endlessly without a response. A text message sent by our correspondent to him was not answered as well.
But the special assistant to the governor on Media (Print), Mr. Ebere Uzoukwa, acknowledged that there was a misunderstanding by the banks and the state government, but that the problem was being sorted out.