Northern Group Calls For Probe Of Alleged Alteration Of Tax Laws

The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) has condemned the subversion of Nigeria’s democratic order over allegations that key provisions of the recently gazetted tax laws were altered after their passage by the National Assembly.

The group warned that the alleged alterations amount to an executive usurpation of legislative powers and called for the immediate suspension of the implementation of the tax laws, a full investigation, and the prosecution of all those involved.

In a statement by its national coordinator, Comrade Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, the CNG said it was disturbing that tax reform bills which were “duly debated, subjected to public hearings, and passed by the legislature” were later “doctored, rewritten, and gazetted as law by some criminal-minded individuals.”

According to the coalition, Nigeria is facing “a brazen act of treacherous expropriation of constitutional authority by elements within the Executive arm of government,” describing the development as “an executive coup against the National Assembly, carried out through stealth, impunity, and contempt for the Constitution.”

The CNG said the alleged manipulation of the laws amounts to fraud, an economic ambush on citizens, and a direct assault on democracy and its core values.

It cited warnings by renowned constitutional lawyer, Professor Auwal Yadudu, that such actions threaten constitutional governance, undermine the doctrine of separation of powers, and erode the credibility of the tax reform process.

Highlighting what it called: “Alarming Alterations. A review of the Nigeria Tax Administration Act alone exposes shocking discrepancies: (A) Section 3(1)(b) of the gazetted version deleted provisions on Petroleum Income Tax and VAT, despite these being explicitly adopted by the National Assembly, negating legislative consensus and creating internal legal contradictions.

“Section 39(3) was altered to impose the US dollar as the exclusive currency for tax computation, contrary to the Act passed by NASS which allows computation in the currency of the transaction. This has dangerous implications for sovereignty, inflation, and economic justice.

“A wholly new and punitive provision, Section 41(8), was smuggled into the gazetted version, compelling taxpayers to deposit 20% of disputed tax assessments before accessing the right of appeal. This is exclusionary, oppressive, and prima facie unconstitutional, as it erects financial barriers to justice.

“Section 60(1) grants tax authorities absolute garnishee powers without court orders, trampling on due process and procedural fairness. Even more scandalous, Sections 60(4–5) selectively require court orders for some authorities while exempting others—a distortion never contemplated by the National Assembly.

“The CNG notes that these are not minor editorial changes but deliberate substantive rewrites. And they may be only a fraction of the broader manipulation across the four tax reform Acts.

“A Neo-Colonial, IMF-Driven Tax Scam

CNG states unequivocally that the entire tax reform agenda, as currently constituted, bears the fingerprints of a neo-colonial and neo-imperial economic project designed to satisfy the policy prescriptions of the IMF, World Bank, and other Bretton Woods institutions, at the expense of Nigerians, small businesses, farmers and the poor.

“This suspicion is reinforced by the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and a French tax agency, Direction Générale des Finances Publiques, executed without public transparency or parliamentary scrutiny. Nigerians must ask: whose interests are these reforms truly serving?”

CNG demanded the immediate suspension of the implementation of all tax reform Acts, including the proposed January 1, 2026 take-off date.

It also called for a full, independent, transparent, and time-bound investigation by both chambers of the National Assembly, including a clause-by-clause comparison of the bills passed by lawmakers and the versions gazetted and assented to.

Charanchi said: “Public exposure, identification, and prosecution of all individuals, agencies, or officials found to have authorised, executed, certified, or facilitated these alterations.

“Failure to act decisively will deepen public mistrust, invite protracted constitutional litigation, destabilise the economy, and entrench a dangerous precedent where laws are rewritten behind closed doors.

“Thus, CNG said without ambiguity that Nigerians will not submit to fiscal obligations arising from laws tainted by secrecy, fraud and constitutional illegitimacy. Democracy cannot survive where due process is sacrificed on the altar of executive arrogance.

“We demand transparency and accountability as Nigeria’s democracy must be defended and the will of the people must never be tampered with.”