The affected buildings are Choice Hotel Ltd., Netherland International School, Chris Moore Lodge and residential buildings belonging to Mr Emeka Akaigwe, Mrs Peace Okeke and Mr Joachim Acho all in Awka.
Some of the guests and passers by pleaded to no avail as the exercise was going on even as the places are now under lock and key with huge implications on the owners especially schools and the hotels, judging from supplies and school still in session.
But the Head, Human Resources and Administration, Anambra Property and Land Use Charge, Mrs Chinenye Okafor, who lead the team of officials in carrying out the enforcement said it carried out the sealing off of the buildings following judgments it obtained from an Awka Magistrate court against the tax evaders.
Speaking in Awka on Wednesday Mrs Okafor said Anambra had 80, 000 tax defaulters, adding that this class of people owed the state government over N2.5bn, adding that about 550 of such cases were pending in courts.
Okafor added that over 4,000 summons had been prepared by the agency against tax defaulters but were yet to be filed in court.
Speaking after the exercise, Okafor said the affected buildings owed the state government a total of N 1.6m.
Her words :“In ensuring that we boost the Internally Generated Revenue of the state, there is the need for property and land owners to pay their rates,” Okafor said.
She maintained that the organization in 2014 carried out such enforcement in Awka and Onitsha in about 45 buildings, noting that 20 more judgments would soon be executed in the state.
‘We are looking forward to enforcing judgments by next week in 14 communities in Obosi urban and places like Akpaka, Omoba phases I and II, GRA, Okpoko, Iyiowa, Nkwelle and 3-3, near Onitsha.
‘We are advising property owners in those areas as well as in Awka, Ogidi and Nnewi to go and pay their property rates before next week or face the wrath of the law,” he said.
Efforts to speak with the owners of the property sealed was unsuccessful as they were all running helter scalter for a way out of the mess.