Officials from the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) launched a controversial enforcement drive on Thursday, sealing off multiple residential properties across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and locking residents out of their homes for failing to pay tenement rates and levies.
The operation, which began early morning in areas like Garki, Wuse, and Maitama, targeted defaulters who owe between N200,000 and N1.5 million per property, according to AMAC sources.
Eyewitnesses reported teams of revenue officers, backed by police, affixing seals and padlocks to gates, leaving families scrambling with belongings on the streets.
"They came without warning, just broke the locks and said we can't enter until we pay up," recounted Aisha Bello, a civil servant from a two-bedroom flat in Garki, whose home was among the first hit.
AMAC Chairman Adamu Candido defended the action as a "necessary measure to recover over N5 billion in outstanding levies" since 2022, emphasizing that tenement rates, property taxes on developed and occupied buildings, are mandated by the FCT Act and AMAC's Tenement Rate Collection Bye-Law.
"We've issued notices for months; this is the last resort to fund essential services like waste management and road repairs," Candido told reporters at the council secretariat.
He cited recent successes, including the August sealing of Efab Metropolis Estate in Karsana over a N600 million debt, which prompted partial settlements after a brief blockade.
However, affected residents decried the tactics as "inhumane and draconian," especially with national inflation at 34% squeezing household budgets.
"How do they expect us to pay when salaries haven't risen? This is locking the poor out of shelter," fumed tenant Emmanuel Okoro, a trader locked out in Wuse.
The enforcement revives a long-simmering dispute over tenement rates in the FCT. A 2018 Federal High Court ruling in Planned Shelter Ltd v. AMAC & Ors. declared the Area Councils' bye-laws unconstitutional for usurping National Assembly powers under Section 1(j) of the 4th Schedule to the 1999 Constitution, prohibiting collections until enabling legislation.
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They understand clearly the poor are not United and there is none to fight for them. To them the poor must have no place in the society. It is left for the poor to decide if the society is meant only for the rich. The court has spoken but as long as it has to do with the poor, the words of the court is useless. One day the poor will certainly stand up and fight. Keep suffocating them.
ReplyDeleteTenement rates are supposed to be tied to certain developmental indices but these people collect this rates and levies for their personal interest without providing any form of support to residents. Residents fix their roads, pay for trash to be collected etc . Then why pay TR without any form of benefit to the people. The impunity in this country is so annoying. I pray God gives us good and beneficial leaders.
ReplyDeleteTinubu's regime with the best policies on paper, partial implementation and ended up widen the gap between the rich and the poor....
ReplyDeleteTruth remains that our leaders are a product of us.. we don't love ourselves... polices are meant to be implemented, everybody should work diligently and we'll have less suffering...
Let's go back to our DADDIES, MUMMIES, UNCLES AND AUNTIES in power, ENOUGH, is ENOUGH.
THEY HAVE ALL IT TAKES TO MAKE NIGERIA BETTER....
Wicked evil people. What are the people getting for paying taxes- nothing
ReplyDelete