The Niger State Liquor Licensing Board has disowned forged payment receipts circulating among vendors, calling them the work of saboteurs trying to discredit its revenue reforms.
Executive Director of Operations and Enforcement Mohammed Hamisu Kogunan told journalists in Minna, in comments carried by Daily Post, that unidentified individuals were issuing fake receipts to vendors while spreading claims that the board was withholding remittances owed to the state government. He dismissed the reports as fabricated and said records of improved remittance sit with the state’s internal revenue agency.
“It is no longer business as usual,” Kogunan said, pointing to a rule introduced this year that requires vendors to pay only into designated government accounts rather than through informal channels.
The dispute lands in familiar territory. In April, the state’s tax authority, NGSIRS, faced comparable accusations of unremitted funds and issued a near-identical rebuttal, framing the claims as an attack on reforms that had lifted monthly collections from roughly N600 million in 2021 to N5 billion by late 2025. Two state revenue bodies disowning fraud claims within the same fiscal year points to a wider credibility gap between Niger State’s collection agencies and the public they answer to, one that mirrors a pattern the World Bank has flagged across Nigerian states still building trust in subnational revenue systems.
Vendors are the ones left sorting valid receipts from forged ones at the point of payment, with little independent way to verify which is which beyond the board’s own assurances. Kogunan said the board has mechanisms in place to trace the source of the forged documents and warned that anyone found responsible would face prosecution. He did not disclose a timeline for the investigation or whether any suspects had been identified.
The forged-receipt allegations follow a broader documentation-fraud problem already visible in Nigeria’s drinks trade, from counterfeit product packaging traced in Anambra to the illicit spirits trade industry groups have pressed regulators to confront nationally.
Whether Kogunan’s investigation produces named suspects or quietly stalls will determine if Niger State’s liquor vendors get clarity on who they are actually paying, or another round of denials to file alongside the last one. “It is no longer business as usual.”
READ MORE
- Anambra Police Arrest Two in Counterfeit Alcohol Bust as Illicit Trade Presses Brands
- SWAN Convenes Industry and Regulators in Abuja to Confront Illicit Spirits Trade
