Benue State Government and the management of Jos Electricity Distribution Plc are at loggerheads over-indebtedness arising from power services provided.The management of Jos DISCO claims that Benue State Government owes it about N158m within three months.But the state government, on the other hand, claims that the DisCO owes it over N400m.

The state government through the Internal Revenue Service Board had, on Wednesday, issued a statement, saying that it had sealed up some businesses across the state, including the offices of JED plc in Makurdi and Gboko, thus turning many parts of towns into darkness.

The Chairman of the State Internal Revenue Service Board, Mrs Mimi Orubibi, had said, “Enforcements become necessary when you have followed all due processes and the tax is not being paid. An audit was carried out on the cement company (name withheld) that letter was dated January 9, 2021 and it was N474million. Since then, we have been on the issue. We did reconciliations and virtual reconciliations and we came down to the final amount of N218million.”

However, Head, Corporate Communications of JED plc, Elijah Adakole, said that the company was not indebted up to the amount claimed by the Benue State Internal Revenue Service board, noting that the board acted arbitrarily to have sealed up its offices in Makurdi and Gboko.

Elijah, in a statement issued and made available to our correspondent in Makurdi said, “It is untrue that the company was owing the revenue service the humongous amount of money being claimed by the Chairman, Mrs Mimi Adzape – Orubibi.

“There is incontrovertible evidence to show that Jos Electricity Distribution Plc has been remitting their PAYE to the Board Account Number – Union Bank 0025168481.

“This could be gleaned from several correspondences and meetings to this effect,” the press release stated.