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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
There are indications that “lapses” in the enforcement of environmental regulations in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have created opportunities for fakes and other disengaged officials of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) to extort money from hawkers and roadside traders.
These people appear in the same uniform as the real APEB officials to, perhaps, convince their targets, who are mostly roadside hawkers and traders, that they are genuine.
However, close investigation revealed that many of the fake task force agents are trying to overrun or overshadow the activities of genuine officials of AEPB who have the constitutional mandate to enforce environmental sanity within and outside Abuja city centre.
The genuine officials normally move in company with armed officials from all security agencies, including the Nigeria Immigration Service. They move in convoys and supervise the enforcement by AEPB the task force.
Findings have revealed that the fake task force agents are mostly ex-officials of AEPB who were either disengaged from service for one misconduct or the other, or had operated beyond assigned responsibilities.
Although some of them have been arrested and prosecuted in the past, there are growing complaints about the unceasing illegal activities of the fake task force agents in the FCT.
It is believed that the fake agents, going by their way of operation, have sufficient operational and enforcement knowledge of AEPB, which help them evade arrest.
Investigations also revealed that some of the fake agents work closely with their friends and collaborators within AEPB, who feed them with information on daily activities of the AEPB enforcement team, so they could equally plan theirs along that line.
With adequate knowledge of AEPB’s operations and support from in-house collaborators, they move smartly and confidently to several locations within and outside Abuja city centre to attack, intimidate, harass and fleece traders.
They would first instil fear and anxiety in their targets, negotiate and force them to part with their treasures to avoid intimidation, arrest and confiscation of their goods.
They also move with vehicles and wear T-shirts and face caps that are similar to what the genuine task force officials use. Lately, their attention has shifted to night-time street hawkers and beggars who may have chosen to operate at night to avoid intimidation and arrest. Wednesdays and Fridays are their favourite days.
Traffic junctions and other isolated streets are their areas of operation. Commercial sex workers also get their own share of harassment and intimidation. Under the cover of darkness, they attack, intimidate and extort money from roadside hawkers, beggars and sex worker with impunity.
Common thieves have infiltrated them too, snatching bags, phones and harassing residents.
A food vendor in Garki, Area 2, Abuja, Cecilia, said she was fed up with the extortion. She said: “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 come and perch around and signal me that they are around. They won’t come directly to my shop so as not to cause a scene. Rather, they would stay a few metres away, awaiting for my response. They take off once I respond positively. My worry is that they are in different groups. Different people come to me in a day.”
A roadside hawker at the popular Obasanjo Junction in Garki II, who identified himself as Dahiru Umar, said he was forced to confront one of them recently, after being defrauded for several months at night.
He said they are mostly able-bodied men who would package themselves and claim to be officials of AEPB task force, and they often appear in AEPB uniforms.
He said: “Some of them would ask us not to run and approach us gently. They would ask us to settle them or risk 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 task force agent at Rita Lori Junction, Garki 2, Abuja. From all indications, the hawker could not longer play the game and had the confidence to challenge the fake agent, and it resulted in fisticuffs.
Some AEPB officials confirmed that they had received such reports and efforts were being made to pin down such fake agents.
One of the officials said: “Accusations of high-handedness are as old as the task force itself. It’s 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 verifiable evidence that can help us investigate and fish out these bad eggs among us.
“Without such evidence, 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 also 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’s counterproductive. Activities of these fake officials are a serious concern for us as an organisation.”
Meanwhile, APEB’s head of monitoring and enforcement, Kaka Bello, also confirmed that the environment protection agency has received reports of the illegal activities of its task force.
He said: “There’s always a bad egg in every organisation and APEB is not different from what is obtainable in the society. However, we are always on the lookout for such bad eggs in the agency. We have made several arrests and, as expected, we handed them over to the police for further investigation and prosecution.
“We have also received report of some boys, mostly in Area 1 and environs, moving in an unpainted Golf car extorting some roadside traders, okada riders and other people. We are tracking them and will soon apprehend them.
“However, we are planning on changing the uniforms of the taskforce team and also ensure that disengaged staff are strictly monitored so they don’t use our name to engage in illegal operations.”
He solicited the support of journalists in the fight to keep Abuja clean and restore sanity to the city.
