A COMPLAINT OF FRAUDULENT AND ILLEGAL IMPOSITION AND COLLECTION OF TIMBER REVENUES AGAINST MR. FABIAN ATTAH EWA AND MR FRANCIS OJONG AGBOR: A CALL FOR URGENT INTERVENTION.
FABIAN ATTAH EWA\’S PAST FRAUDULENT ACTIVITIES
Mr Fabian Ewa comes from Iruan in Boki ll state constituency. In 2019, he came up with claims that he was one among the two persons that were given clearance to lift timber from Boki 1. He subjected timber dealers to paying the sum of five hundred thousand naira (N500,000) initially per truckload of timber. Not too long, the amount was increased by him and his cronies to nine hundred thousand naira (N900,000) per truckload and that has continued for four years now. He went ahead to claim that he was the head of operations along Obudu road, mediating between the stakeholders whom he gives fifty percent of the money and remits the leftover fifty percent to the Cross River Internal Revenue Service and the Forestry Commission respectively. Recently, the Abo-CentralTimber Union has undertaken a thorough investigation and uncovered that the latter fifty percent
was not remitted as claimed; rather, it ended in his pocket. It is on this note, that the Union demands Mr Fabian Ewa to tender evidence of remittance of the latter fifty percent to the Union or we shall ask for a subpoena of his accounts and seek for refunds of it in court. Within these four years, Mr Fabian has collected money for more than ten thousand (10,000) truckloads of timber.
MR FABIAN EWA\’S RECENT CRIMINALITIES AFTER THE LIFT OF BAN ON TIMBER
1) Mr. Fabian does not have a single piece of timber in Boki 1 State Constituency yet he compels everyone who trades on timber and travels through Obudu road to northern Nigeria to pay the sum of nine hundred and fifty thousand naira to him for permit. He goes about with a group of men to impound for as long as possible any truckload of wood that does not have evidence of this payment or that does not have what he claims to be his permit papers. All of this is done in false pretense that he is officially assigned by state government.
2) Mr Fabian owns two illegal roadblocks that he calls checkpoints; one at Obanliku and the other at Obudu. Each has more than a hundred boys hired and empowered by him. This untamable group of boys beat-up any driver and conductor of any truck to a pulp if they drive through their roadblock without a permit carrying Fabian Ewa\’s name on the permit papers.
3) Mr Fabian Ewa collects the government approved three hundred and fifty thousand (N350,000) and also fraudulently collects an additional five hundred and fifty thousand which he claims to have been remitting to Internal Revenue Service.
4) Mr Fabian Ewa impounds and clamps down on our members\’ truckloads of wood carrying genuine and approved forestry and the Cross River Internal Revenue permit papers. The additional money of about five hundred thousand that he collects, he claims that the governor mandated him to service Obanliku and Obudu leaders with the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand naira (N250,000) from every truckload of timber that comes from Boki 1 State Constituency. Our union is asking for evidence of remittance and the letter that permits him.
5) Mr. Fabian Ewa was rejected and turned out by the Permanent Secretary (PS)of the Forestry Commission on his demand that, the PS should stop passage of timber so that he could resume his criminal venture. Even when turned down, Mr Fabian still went to various social media platforms to falsely announce dates of closedown on passage of timber.
6) Mr Fabian Ewa admonishes his boys and flock to be undaunted and wear the armour of late General Iron, the one-time notorious terrorist of Oku. The boys are heard boasting at different fora that their master has promised to turn them into millionaires should they effect their master\’s mandate as instructed.
7) He has gone ahead to print 29 different booklets with different fake revenue sub-heads that he uses to extort money from our members.
8) He has also connived with some officers of the Forestry Commission within the Boki 1 State Constituency to harmer all the wood that goes through Obudu road, to the North on his name.
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