Fashola lied against me again----Jimi Agbaje

(Nigeria) Governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, for Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, has accused Governor Babatunde Fashola of peddling falsehood and misinformation against him, while counselling him to thread the path of integrity and credibility.

In a statement on Thursday, titled “Fashola lies again,” Agbaje said it was clear that the governor had taken to serial falsehood in order to confuse citizens into begrudging him of unfounded allegations being levelled by the Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

Agbaje was reacting to the claim made by Fashola at a book launch in Lagos, alleging Agbaje vowed to cancel taxes if elected governor.

The PDP candidate in a statement denied the charge, saying, he was rather committed to bringing more Lagosians into the tax net, while guaranteeing fairness in tax payments.

The statement, said “It is now clear to all observers that outgoing Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola is committed to reiterating and repeating various versions of his well-known lies on the subject of Jimi Agbaje’s taxes. The strategy appears to be that if he repeats the lies often enough, they would eventually be believed irrespective of the veracity or lack of it, of his claims.

“Fashola’s first lie was to accuse Jimi Agbaje of owing on his personal taxes, only to realise that a few days earlier, his own Finance Commissioner had issued a letter of commendation to Jimi Agbaje for being faithful in paying state taxes!

“Then Fashola told the second lie –that Jimi Agbaje was in default of land use charges even though he knew that the tax payer in issue was a limited liability company in which Jimi Agbaje was a shareholder. Again when Lagosians were told the truth-that Jaykay Pharmacy Ltd had paid all its legitimate land use charges to date, and was disputing spurious and capricious ‘penalties’ arbitrarily levied by Fashola’s agents, he told a third lie –that Jimi Agbaje had acknowledged his indebtedness by making payments after he had publicly accused Agbaje of evading taxes.

“Alas that was the most blatant falsehood as Agbaje had actually made his required tax payments before Fashola politicised and publicised the innocent man’s tax affairs for political gain. Fashola has not bothered to respond to Jimi Agbaje’s challenge to produce evidence that the payments were made after his accusations. Instead in the manner of liars and propagandists, he has simply told another (bigger) lie! At the launch of his Attorney-General’s book, Fashola was reported to have ‘specifically mentioned the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, Mr Jimi Agbaje as promising to withdraw or cancel payment of taxes in the state.’ All Lagosians know that this is another huge lie told by Governor Fashola.

“The truth, as everyone knows, is that Jimi Agbaje never made such a statement.

“He has of course categorically affirmed that he would stop the unfair and dubious toll collection on the Lekki-Epe Expressway. Lagosians are now aware that the fraudulent and failed PPP on that road has been terminated and that the state-constructed road was only expanded by the erstwhile concessionaries using a significant proportion of state resources. We repeat that tolling on that road is oppressive, unfair and a fraud on the people as well as contrary to global best practices as there is no effective alternative to that expressway.

“Mr Agbaje’s position is clear –Lagosians will pay taxes, but they will pay fair taxes. More Lagosians will be encouraged to come under the tax net, rather than over-burden the few compliant tax-payers. And Lagosians will have fair value for their taxes and none of their tax payments will be diverted to service the greed of ‘vested interests’ and ‘godfathers.’

“As for Governor Fashola and his lies, we caution him not to sacrifice all of his remaining integrity and reputation on the altar of cheap politics. But then we would not be too surprised if he shortly releases another lie,” the statement added.