Friday February 6, 2026
www.thenewsdesk.ng
The Centre for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN) has strongly rejected the proposed Akwa Ibom State Taxes and Levies Bill, 2025, describing it as “obnoxious, monstrous and anti-people,”
Addressing a public hearing organised by the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, in Uyo on Thursday, the right group’s Director, Otuekong Franklyn Isong warned that the bill, if passed into law, would worsen poverty, cripple the private sector and inflict severe hardship on tenants and low-income earners across the state.
According to CHRAN, Sections 16 and 19 of the bill would ultimately punish tenants, as landlords would transfer the burden of property taxes to occupants, thereby making tenancy “a life of misery and hardship” for ordinary citizens already grappling with economic challenges.
The rights group also faulted Section 21(2), which shifts tax liability from landlords to occupiers, arguing that the provision openly promotes absentee landlordism while exposing tenants to excessive and unfair financial obligations.
CHRAN further criticised the bill for failing to differentiate between urban and rural housing, noting that even mud houses occupied by the poorest residents would be taxed, a development the group said contradicts the ARISE Agenda of Governor Umo Eno, who is widely portrayed as pro-poor.
“The bill does not distinguish between luxury properties and houses occupied by the poorest of the poor, including mud houses in rural communities, such provisions negates government’s social contract with vulnerable citizens”. He said
The organisation also warned that the schedule of taxes and levies contained in the bill has “strangulating characteristics” capable of shutting down the already fragile private sector in Akwa Ibom, a state largely dependent on civil service employment.
CHRAN noted that businesses in the state are already struggling due to poor electricity supply, lack of water and inadequate infrastructure, forcing many to rely on costly alternative energy sources to survive.
Raising serious legal concerns, the group condemned the use of the term “enforcement” in Section 28 of the bill, describing it as ambiguous and potentially dangerous, especially as it is not defined in the interpretation section of the proposed law.
“The word ‘enforcement’ as used in this bill is capable of many dubious interpretations, including seizure of people’s property,” Isong warned, stressing that the harsh penalty regime could double tax liabilities within 135 days of default.
CHRAN also argued that the bill violates Section 43 of the 1999 Constitution, as well as international human rights instruments guaranteeing the right to own property, insisting that the proposed law would punish poverty and further impoverish citizens.
The centre therefore rejected the bill in its entirety and called on members of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly to stand with the people by halting further consideration of the legislation, recalling that a similar bill was rejected by public outcry in 2016.
Other civil society organisations, stakeholders and concerned citizens who made submissions on the controversial bill seeking to harmonise taxes and levies in the state described the bill and inhuman and called its rejection.
