Ondo Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu says his Ebonyi state counterpart Dave Umahi agrees with the Southern Governors Forum (SGF) resolution that Value Added Tax (VAT) duly belonged to states and not the federal government.

Recently, Mr Umahi became the first Southern governor to break rank with his colleague and opposed the agitation for states to collect VAT. Instead, he insisted that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) should continue to collect VAT.

“Ebonyi state is not in support of any state collecting VAT. We are in support that FIRS should continue to collect tax and share,” Mr Umahi was quoted as saying at a dinner in honour of a former Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai.

However, speaking in an interview with Arise Television on Sunday night, Mr Akeredolu, who is also the chairman of the SGF, said that the decision of the southern governors on the VAT issue was completely unanimously adopted.

“From our meeting in Asaba, Delta state, which we call the Asaba declaration, Umahi was there; all of us agreed. So there is no problem about that. All of us have been unanimous. We only reiterated our position, which we took in Asaba,” Mr Akeredolu said.

He said Mr Umahi could say whatever he likes on the VAT debate but “cannot run away. I can assure you that he signed up to what we decided in Asaba.”

According to Mr Akeredolu, all the southern governors’ at the Asaba Declaration agreed that the time has come for Nigeria to practice true federalism, which they reiterated at the meeting in Enugu by upholding the legality of one of its components.

He said when they discussed true federalism in Asaba, along with Mr Umahi, they all agreed that the constitution clearly states that VAT “falls within state purview.”

There have been controversies surrounding the collection of VAT after the Rivers State division of the Federal High Court, on August 10, ruled that Rivers, rather than the FIRS, was constitutionally empowered to collect and utilise VAT proceeds.

This monumental judgment necessitated the Rivers governor, Mr Wike’s subsequent enactment of the VAT law in the state, a move that was also adopted by Lagos, with other southern states, including Ogun and Akwa Ibom, ready to follow suit.