Kwara Assembly, Revenue Service Heading for Showdown Over Local Govt of Origin Certification

By Bisi Adedayo, Ilorin.

The Kwara State House of Assembly and the State Internal Revenue Service (KSIRS) are heading for showdown over recertification of state of origin.

KSHA has directed the revenue agency to immediately withdraw letters of recertification of State of Origin written to various tertiary institutions in the State.

The house also directed its Committee on Finance and Appropriation to invite the KSIRS for clarification on the status of the old version of the Local Government certificate of origin.

The Assembly also mandated the revenue agency to as a matter of urgency suspend its announcement/advocacy in the media and in tertiary institutions until grey areas surrounding the issues were resolved by the State legislature.

It would be recalled that the State government revenue agency had written letters to all the state owned tertiary institutions to inform them that certificate of origin should be made one of the requirements for students’ course registration.

The legislature gave the directives in Ilorin, while considering a Motion on  “Contradictions arising from issuance of certificate of Local Government of origin” raised by a membe representing Ilorin North/West constituency Hon. Abdulrafiu Abdulrahman.

Abdulrahman who observed among other things that, there was no policy invalidating the current certificate of origin, queried the internal circular issued by the authorities of University of Ilorin on the recertification exercise.

He explained that though there was high rate of abuse of the certificate by non indigenes, the House was worried that the KSIRS gave premium on revenue generating aspect than verifying the authenticity of the bearers of the certificates, “thereby derailing from the main motive behind the exercise”.

Reading the Houses resolutions, the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Matthew Okedare who presided over the sitting, said the directives became necessary to avoid unnecessary hardship occasioned by the directive on the students of Kwara origin in tertiary institutions.

Hon Okedare stressed that the House also needed to clear grey on issues surrounding the recertification exercise.

Investigations by our correspondent revealed that the management of University of Ilorin has sent memo to various faculty officers and heads of departments to the effect that freshers and returning students of Kwara State origin in the institution should not be registered unless they present the certificate of origin issued by the state revenue agency.