Mortuary Tax: Urban Radio, Enugu Apologizes for Misinformation

By Chinedu Echianu

An Enugu based radio station, Urban Radio 94.5FM has recanted and apologized for a report in which it claimed that the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service had imposed a N40,000 daily mortuary tax on the people, saying it was an unfortunate oversight on their part.

Recall that the social media was agog last week as the 2004 law, which imposed just N40 fine as part of the steps to curtail the practice of leaving dead bodies for too long in the mortuary to prepare for mega funerals, was made to appear as a 2024 order by the Governor Peter Mbah Administration.

One of such misinformation by Favour Ekoh on Urban FM, Enugu was publicised by Instablog, on its  X handle with over 4.8 million followers, thus causing uproar on the social media and agitation among many Enugu residents.

Ekoh was reported as saying on a talkshow on the radio station;  “So, the dead, they are not exempted from multiple taxation. So, you are alive, you are taxed. You are dead, you are taxed. So, basically, the Enugu State Government says, if you have loved ones, who die, if they are not buried within 24 hours, you are paying the sum of Forty Thousand Naira (N40,000) and that amount continues to count on a daily basis until you come and carry your corpse. On the day you come to carry your corpse, they will calculate the demurrage and you will pay before you pick your loved one, who is dead. So, this is the latest development in Enugu State. I do not know if by this the people will now be made to bury their loved ones as soon as they die. But how much more can the people take? How much more? I do not really know,”.

However, retracting the misinformation, the presenter, Ekoh said, it was an unfortunate oversight as she mixed up figures while reading a press statement by the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service on the notice of implementation of mortuary tax which is a forty naira fine as against the forty thousand naira widely reported.

“The figure there is actually N40 (forty naira per day), but for some weird reasons, I had mentioned N40,000, which was not deliberate. So, this is me apologising to Enugu State Internal Revenue Service.

“I understand that, that caused an uproar. It was not intentional at all. I did not intend to create tensions in any way. So, my apologies to the Executive Chairman of the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Nnamani Ekene, and the entire media team of the state government.

“Even though it was corrected on subsequent programmes, but be that as it may, that should not have happened in the first place. Kindly disregard the N40,000 you had heard on Primetime Press on Saturday. It was a mistake on my part. I apologise,” she stated.

Meanwhile, recall that denouncing the misrepresentation earlier in the week, the Chairman of the Enugu State Internal Revenue Service had explained that his 2023 memo was doctored to read September 17, 2024, adding that it was actually intended to save bereaved families from the exploitation of unscrupulous mortuary proprietors and agents, who charge way higher than N40 stipulated in the 2004 law.

He also explained that the 2004 law was not meant to generate revenue for the government, but intended to encourage bereaved families to bury their dead early to decongest the mortuaries.