The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) is set to shut down government offices, hotels, plazas and other business premises for their refusal to settle their N10 billion waste collection debts.
This is coming on the heels of the Task Force Team, set up by the FCTA Permanent Secretary, Olusade Adesola to recover the money owed by several government agencies, business premises and residential apartments in the nation’s capital.
The Director of AEPB, Engineer Osilama Briamah who made the move known to newsmen at the weekend, said that the Task Team has been mandated to apply all legal means to recover the 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 AEPB.
“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 that, beginning from 5:30 am tomorrow April 19, 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.
According to him, AEPB had made moves to provide soft-landing for the debtors through negotiated settlement but to no avail, adding that the only option left is to apply the legal means by enforcing the court order to seal-up the affected premises.
The Director said that 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.
