12 November 2025
OPEN LETTER TO THE HONOURABLE, THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL/COMMISSIONER FOR JUSTICE, IMO STATE.
RE: URGENT ADVISORY ON THE LEGAL INFIRMITY OF THE IMO STATE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE’S THREATENED ENFORCEMENT OF VEHICLE DOCUMENTATION COMPLIANCE COMMENCING 18 NOVEMBER 2025 – GRAVE RISK OF CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATIONS AND PUBLIC UNREST
I write as a lawyer and human rights activist committed to defending the constitutional liberties of Imo citizens against arbitrary state action.
The recent public notice issued by the Imo State Internal Revenue Service (IIRS), announcing blanket enforcement of vehicle documentation with threats of impoundment from 18 November 2025, is legally indefensible, constitutionally repugnant, and dangerously provocative.
For the avoidance of doubt, the notice which has been in the social media space read: “All motorists in Imo State are hereby informed that full enforcement on vehicle documentation will commence from 18th November 2025. Vehicle not up-to-date with their vehicle particulars will be impounded during the exercise. Avoid penalties and embarrassment, update your vehicle papers now!”
As Chief Law Officer under Section 195(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), you are duty-bound to advise and restrain this agency from plunging the state into avoidable chaos.
Permit me first to salute the courage and decisiveness of His Excellency, Governor Hope Uzodimma, in suspending the menacing Imo State Environmental Transformation Commission (ENTRACO) yesterday, 11 November 2025. The Governor’s swift action in halting an agency whose brutality had become synonymous with terror on our roads, restores public confidence in governance.
Imo ENTRACO’s reign of impunity marked by bestiality, barbarism, hooliganism, extortion, violence, and fatalities, had crossed every red line of decency. This ban is not merely administrative; it is a moral declaration that the lives and property of Imo people are non-negotiable. It sets an irreversible standard that no MDA in this state may wield state power as a license for oppression.
Yet, even as we applaud this intervention, the IIRS notice threatens to undo this progress. Its menacing tone, “avoid penalties and embarrassment,” and its unapologetic threat of mass impoundment constitute a direct assault on Section 44(1) of the Constitution, which prohibits compulsory acquisition of movable property without due process, public purpose, and judicial oversight. A vehicle is not mere metal; for countless families in Imo State, it is livelihood, mobility, and survival. To seize it extrajudicially, without warrant, hearing, or recourse, is nothing short of state-sanctioned theft.
The Law establishing the IIRS grants no such policing powers. Revenue collection does not confer authority to act as judge and executioner. Impoundment without statutory delegation from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) or a court order renders every threatened seizure ultra vires, unlawful, and actionable in damages for conversion and trespass to goods.
Worse, this announcement lands on a state already hemorrhaging from serial MDA atrocities. Two months ago on Aba/Owerri Road, ENTRACO’s brutality claimed lives. Two weeks ago at Toronto Junction by MCC, property were destroyed and more lives lost in clashes sparked by their aggression. Just two days ago at Wetheral Road, two more citizens perished under circumstances directly linked to ENTRACO’s high-handedness and madness.
Imo State is a tinderbox; charged, volatile, and teetering on the edge of collective despair. Our people are besieged by endemic insecurity: kidnappings, banditry, violence, and now, state-sponsored terror from agencies meant to serve them. Any further provocation, especially a mass impoundment exercise by the IIRS, is likely not to be met with compliance. It may ignite widespread unrest, a total breakdown of law and order, and a conflagration the state may not contain.
The blood of Imolites already stains too many roads. We can not afford another drop.
The IIRS must be advised, firmly and immediately, that:
1. Impoundment of vehicles without judicial process violates Section 44(1) and is unenforceable;
2. Enforcement powers over road traffic documentation reside primarily with the FRSC, not revenue agencies; and
3. Any attempt to proceed may trigger mass resistance and expose the state to crippling litigation and public disorder.
Your office, as guardian of the rule of law, must act now. The legal community is vigilantly monitoring the IIRS. Should they insist on this unlawful course, we shall approach the courts without hesitation, seeking declarations of illegality, perpetual injunctions, and exemplary damages for every citizen whose rights are trampled.
The people of Imo State have suffered enough. Let this be the moment the law prevails over impunity.
Yours in the struggle for good governance,
Chinedu Agu
Solicitor & Notary Public
Past Secretary, NBA Owerri.
ezeomeaku@gmail.com
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