Bigly Oil and Gas, one of the principal partners of the Anambra State Government in revenue collection has barred its members from smoking cigarettes, hemp, other hard drugs and substances especially while on duty.
Speaking at a press conference in Awka, the Project Manager, of Bigly Oil and Gas Company, Mr. Chukwuma Nwabuikwu Michael, said Bigly performed her functions in alignment with the guidelines provided by the Anambra State Internal Revenue Service as it concerns revenue collections.
Nwabuikwu maintained that their agents were barred from drugs and substance abuse in order to improve the State revenue generation window in civic and responsible manner as envisaged by governor Chukwuma Soludo’s adminstration.
Nwabuikwu further maintained that any of their agents caught engaging in sharp practices or corruption, consuming or trading on hard drugs, alcoholic drinks, cigarettes and hemp while on duty would be disengaged and handed over to the law enforcement agents for appropriate action.
“We are working with Anambra State Internal Revenue Service to collect haulage revenues, help improves the State revenue, stop agberos (touts), and block revenue leakages. We are committed to this service since we started operation on 26 September, 2023.
“We have recruited over 300 youth to join the system, train them and empower them to work efficiently, with their complete data available to the security and other relevant authorities.
“Our rule of engagement handed over to them is to observe international best practices. If you engage on hard drugs, smoke hemp or even take cigarettes or alcoholic drinks while on duty, we will dismiss and hand you over to the law enforcement agents. We will also dismiss and ensure prosecution of any of our staff caught in sharp practices or corruption. We warned our members against using violence or abuses on motorists too”.
Nwabuikwu also declared that Bigly Oil and Gas Company is not at war with the Executive Director of Operations of the state internal revenue service, Dr. Christian Madubuko.
The project manager who stated categorically that Bigly Oil and Gas Company was not aware of any director of the AIRS trying to witch-hunt the company for carrying out her assignments diligently, maintained that since the company commenced revenue collection as an officially accredited partner to the state government, it has not defaulted.
He said the company has set up its Compliance Quality Control Team which will traverse the three senatorial zones of the state to monitor the operations of revenue collectors under Bigly Oil and Gas Company.
He was also emphatic that any of her workers caught smoking cigarettes or taking hard substances while on duty would not only be sacked but would also be handed over to the security agents for proper prosecution.
The project manager restated the fact that the staff of the organization were trained not to engage motorists violently no matter the situation. Even if a driver pushed them around in the course of haulage collection, they should not engage the driver violently.
They had expected Dr. Christian Madubuko who claimed he caught Bigly Boys with Tramadol and other hard drugs to write to the company since they were partners, but he declined and resorted to tarnishing the image of the company for some obscure reasons.
Nwabuikwu explained that Bigly Oil and Gas Company was not the only authorized revenue partner to the Anambra State Government, he said the company has been licensed to collect haulage tax and their staff are always properly kitted at their duty posts.
He pointed out that Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo didn’t authorize Bigly Oil and Gas Company to collect cash he was equally of the opinion that it is not every driver passing through Anambra state that has a POS debit card.
“There are also instances of network failures resulting in an outage of the network operator that provides service for the POS machine”.
