By Daniel Tyokua
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has sealed some public offices, hotels and malls over N10 billion naira owed to the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB).
This is contained in a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Strategic Communication to the FCT minister, Sani Abubakar on Monday.
According to the statement, the decision followed the composition of a Task Team set up by the FCTA Permanent Secretary, Mr. Olusade Adesola to recover the debts from waste collection owed by several government agencies, business premises and residential apartments in the nation’s capital, Abuja.
The Task Team which is headed by the Director Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Engr Osilama Briamah has been mandated to apply all legal means to recover the huge sums of money from the debtors, adding that the debts accrued over time due to the failure of those concerned to pay for services rendered to them by the board.
According to him, “all of us desire to live and work in a world-class city compared to other beautiful cities around the world. But we can only do that successfully if we behave as responsible citizens by paying our utility bills especially for solid and liquid waste collection”.
“Unfortunately, many agencies, residential apartments, hotels, plazas and so on, are not paying their bills as expected. That makes it difficult to raise the money needed to manage a mega-city like Abuja.”
He said, beginning from 5:30 am on Tuesday April 19th, based on a court order already obtained by the AEPB, the Task Team will embark on mass seal-up of these facilities with the aim of recovering the huge money being owed.
He lamented that the AEPB had made moves to provide soft-landing for the debtors through negotiated settlement but to no avail, adding that the only option left was to apply the legal means by enforcing the court order to seal-up the affected premises.
The Director, however, said the affected debtors can avoid the impending embarrassment by ensuring prompt payment of their liabilities.
He explained that the payments can be made conveniently through the Remita portal.
