Dr David Nzekwu, the Chairman, Anambra Internal Revenue Service (AIRS), said on Friday that the fire and looting at the Revenue House on October 24 did not affect the organisation’s official data.

Nzekwu said this during an interaction with newsmen in Awka, adding that the incident would not deter the organisation from pursuing its core mandate of revenue generation, data gathering and storage.

He said that only the work assets of the agency, including the computer sets, office furniture and vehicles, were destroyed by the fire.

He described the insinuation of a possible insider collusion in the incident as a mere figment of the imagination of the fifth columnists.

The revenue boss said that after the fire on Saturday, workers resumed duty on Monday under canopies.

According to him, the good thing is that our data is largely online and our server is placed outside the office.

“We have activated our disaster recovery mechanism and have recovered every information.

“All our official data were backed up and stored in servers not computers and files, so no information was destroyed,” Nzekwu said.

He said that the fire was set inside the office of the chairman’s secretary, boardroom and downstairs.

He said that because the building was fireproof, the structure was not razed down, adding that a three ton air-conditioner was used to set on the fire.

“We discovered that there were two groups, one was interested in stealing anything it could and the others were interested in burning or destroying anything they could lay their hands on.

“We have reported the matter to the appropriate quarters and investigation is ongoing.

“It is unfortunate that people will decide to destroy public assets built with public money,” Nzekwu said.

He said that Gov. Willie Obiano had visited the place to assess the extent of damage done by the alleged looters.

He said the agency was determined to realise its N36 billion target for the 2021 fiscal year without necessarily increasing tax and levies as promised by the governor.

He said that all businesses in Anambra would be made to pay taxes, adding that there were over 55,000 registered businesses in the state.

He, however, regretted that less than 8,000 of the number currently paid taxes.

Nzekwu said that the state government would put the necessary machinery in place to ensure that every registered business paid its tax.

He said sanitation levy would henceforth become compulsory for every household in the state.

NAN