Tax payments is a constitutional obligation for all, he states
By M.A. Egge
The Deputy Mayor of the capital, Hargeisa, Khaddar Ahmed Omar, has defended the Hargeisa Mayor and the city’s local government from organized and orchestrated accusations of smear campaigns that have been doing rounds in the social media from a section of the city residents that smacks malicious chagrin based on clannish tendencies.
The smear campaigns have been directly targeting the City Mayor Cllr. Abdikarim Ahmed Mooge in a bid to depict him as a biased official, an act that seemingly emanates from residents who were angered by the Mayor’s pivotal role in the successful campaigning for the triumph of the new President-elect Dr. Abdirahman Irro.
The orchestrated smear campaigns calls for boycotting of tax payments for wayward reasons amongst other ill-intended reasons.
The Mayor is indeed a celebrated public servant largely perceived as the most scrupulous public official who has done and overseen the most tangible and concrete progress and development not seen in the country for the past three decades.
The spirited attempt to undermine him by disgruntled people has forced his deputy to come out in his defense.
Deputy mayor Khadar Ahmed Omar said, “We feel that after the election, an organized public uprising has broken out in the capital Hargeisa. We were in office in Hargeisa for three years, and in those three years, we have done a lot in the capital. The people of Hargeisa and the people of Somaliland are witnesses to our services and we would not be held back at all”.
He said that all along they had been working steadfastly and diligently without favoritisms for all residents in the city in the past three years that they had been in office and that their work is there to be witnessed by all.
He cautioned that the time for electioneering politicking was over and seeds of discord should not be planted amongst the residents.
We added, “We are telling the people of Hargeisa that the time for politics is over. There is no conflict within the Hargeisa local council. It is the duty of the people of Hargeisa to work together and we have our responsibilities. The responsibilities of the local government in Hargeisa are shared responsibilities, the mayor of the capital does not have a specific responsibility alone, I, as the deputy mayor, share the responsibility, and the local council shares the responsibility too”.
He continued, “Tax payment is a constitutional provision, and anyone who owes tax is obligated to pay it. No one can refuse, no one can play around with it, and say in the media that taxes should not be paid; it is a violation of the constitution”.
He pointed out that as public officials they are liable to be held accountable.
Cheap propaganda owing to ‘perceived election failure’ by heart-broken elements would not sway the duty of the civic body to the city residents.
He called on the members of the public to be responsible and desist from clannish and tribal tendencies by causing discords that do not exist at all hence should not fan for reactions that would negatively impact the city with undue repercussions.
Khaddar Ahmed Omar also sent a message to the Hargeisa community, calling on them to be vigilant against the wayward people who want to divide the society of the capital.
“I am speaking to my people of Hargeisa, and I thank every Hargeisa resident who feels that something has been done by the council for them. I say to the ill-motivated people who want to divide Hargeisa that they should stop what they are orchestrating”, he said.