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Fred Ezeh
Some people are into smart business in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. They are taking advantage of some obvious lapses in enforcement of environmental law by the Abuja Environmental Protection Agency (AEPA), to enrich themselves illegally.
Investigation revealed that a good number of fake taskforce agents are clamping down on innocent residents under the pretending to be staff of the AEPB. The genuine officials, ideally, move in company of armed security agents including the immigration service. They move in convoy and supervise the enforcement being done by the AEPB task officials.
Findings show that the fake taskforce agents are mostly ex-officials of AEPB who were either disengaged from service for one offence or the other, or operated beyond assigned responsibilities. Though, luck have repeatedly run out on some of them in the past, leading to their arrest and prosecution, they have refused to quit the illegal job.
There were indications that the fake agents, going by their way of operations, have adequate and sufficient operational and enforcement knowledge of AEPB with insider support, which, most often, help them evade arrest. The investigation also show that some of the fake agents work closely with their friends and collaborators within AEPB, who feed them with bit-by-bit information on daily activities of the enforcement team, so they could equally plan theirs along that line.
With adequate knowledge of AEPB taskforce operations and the support from in-house friends, they move smartly and confidently to several locations within and outside Abuja to attack, intimidate, harass and extort traders.
Based on their modus operandi, they would first instil fear in the roadside traders or other targets, negotiate and force them to quietly part with their treasures to avoid intimidation, arrest or possible confiscation of their goods. There are also indications that they move with vehicles and also dress in T-shirts and face caps that are similar to what the genuine taskforce officials use.
Their attention is shifted to night street hawkers and beggars who might have chosen to operate at night hours to avoid intimidation and arrest. Wednesdays and Fridays are their favourite days of operation. Traffic junctions and other isolated streets are their areas of operation. Commercial sex workers also get their own fare share of the harassment and intimidation.
Under the cover of night with hidden identity, they attack, intimidate and extort hawkers as well as beggars and commercial sex workers, having the confidence and unafraid of counter action by genuine officials. Regrettably, criminals have infiltrated them, thus taking advantage of the situation to perpetrate their evil acts. They snatch bags, phones, harass and intimidate residents.
A food vendor at Garki Area 11, Abuja, Grace (not real name), said she is fed up with the extortion, but she has been helpless because she cannot withstand the harassment and intimidation from the officials: “These people approach me virtually every day for money. If I refuse to settle them, they would cause serious disruption for me and that would affect my business for the day.
“The way they operate is that they would come and perch around and signal me that they are around. They won’t come directly to my shop. Rather they would stay few metres away awaiting usual response from me. They take off once I respond. My worry is that they are in different groups. Different people come on daily basis.”
A hawker at Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse 2, Salihu Aminu, said he was forced to confront one of them recently, after being extorted for several months at night hours. He said they are mostly men who would package themselves and claim to be officials of AEPB taskforce, and they would harass and intimidate them, and in most cases dispossess them of their belongings:
“Some of them would ask us not to run and approach us gently. They would ask us to settle them orrisk arrest or confiscation of our goods. Because of fear, we hardly question their identity. But we have decided henceforth to confront them.”
Last week, our correspondent witnessed a confrontation between a hawker and a fake taskforce agent at Diamond Bank junction, Wuse 2, Abuja. From all indications, the hawker did not play the game and had the boldness to challenge the fake taskforce agent, and resulted in a fisticuff.
AEPB spokesman, Muktar Ibrahim, said they have received such reports and efforts are being made to fish out fake taskforce agents who have, obviously taken pleasure in discrediting and frustrating the efforts of AEPB: “Accusations of high handedness is as old as the task force itself. It is natural that anybody that is enforcing the law must come across such things if care is not taken.
“I am not exonerating anybody but there is no organisation or profession without bad eggs. I always encourage the public to come forth with concrete evidences that can help us investigate and fish out these bad eggs among us. Without such evidences, our workers would always deny. They would say that people are accusing them because of the nature of their work.
“However, I can tell you that we have arrested some imposters in the past. Some of them are ex-AEPB workers who were disengaged for bad behaviour or something else. They form their own group and know our schedules.
“They go about extorting people and discrediting our work. We have said it repeatedly that we have zero tolerance for any form of extortion because it is counterproductive. Activities of these fake task officials is a serious concern for us as organisation.”
