Waste takes over FCT as AEPB hounds hawkers, prostitutes

FCT residents are groaning over the hazard of increasing waste dumps around the nation’s capital, especially in the suburbs, as the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEBP) which is saddled with the responsibility of, among others, keeping the FCT clean pays more attention to chasing after hawkers, prostitutes and motorcyclists. PAUL OKAH reports.

The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) was created in pursuant to the AEPB Act of 1977; with the objective of achieving sustainable development in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT); securing the quality of an adequate environment for the health, conserve and use of its natural resources for the benefit of residents of the territory. Activities of the board are also expected to be geared towards minimising the impact of physical development on the ecosystem of the territory, in order to raise awareness and promote understanding of essential linkages between environment and development, even as the board is expected to carry out waste collection and disposal, landfill development, monitoring of cleaning contractors; for an improvement in the quality of environment adequate for the health and well being of residents.

While the board has the vision “to be the foremost environmental protection agency in Nigeria and Africa,” its mission is “to provide a clean, hygienic and sustainable environment for the well being of present and future generations in line with the visions of FCT Administration (FCTA) ‘to build a world class city comparable to other first class cities of the world’.”

However, investigations by Blueprint Weekend revealed that the board has been making half-hearted attempts at living up to its mandate, be it vision or mission, especially with regards to waste disposal within the FCT.

Mounting waste

On October 27, 2018, Blueprint Weekend reported that a first time visitor to Nyanya, a suburban community which is home, mostly to low income earners, could mistake it for a refuse dump because of the sight of waste randomly dumped by trucks and local waste collectors popularly called mai shara at Mopol Junction. Residents and commuters from different parts of Abuja and suburban communities in neighbouring Nasarawa state must encounter this refuse dump on their way to and back from work.

The waste is usually not evacuated for days, with the stench threatening the health of people earning a living in the area. Commuters are not spared, as drivers and passengers coming into the city from the suburb have to endure the stench especially during peak periods when traffic builds up in the area. However, hawkers of food items and sellers continue to ply their trade around the dumpsites.

A car dealer at Nyanya, Mr Theophilus Nduka, told Blueprint Weekend that the stench from the dumpsite has cost them of patronage as people usually hurry pass the area to avoid inhaling the bad odour from the waste.

He expressed dismay that the authorities were not concerned about the dumpsite which could lead to an epidemic in the near future.

He said: “My brother, what can we do when it is the government that purportedly placed the waste? The smell is usually ephemeral but we leave whenever it is much. Like yesterday, they didn’t evacuate the waste and we had to stay away from here because of the stench. That is what we have to endure as we try to earn a living in this area.

“Nevertheless, there was a time when you hardly saw waste here, but since last week, the waste here have not been evacuated.

“I learnt that their truck suffered a breakdown. The truck that evacuated wastes here yesterday was hired by the company. If you had been here two days ago, the wastes covered a reasonable part of the road, before it was evacuated.”

Another resident, Bello Musa, said that the waste is usually dumped by residents from Mararaba and not only those residing in Nyanya.

“We are really in danger of a disease breakout if nothing is done about the relocation of these waste products. They are deposited by people from Mararaba and a few from Nyanya. Wheel barrow and truck pushers go from door to door to collect the waste and are paid N50 or N100, depending on the quantity.

“They then dump them here leaving us to suffer the consequences of perceiving the stench. As you see them relaxing now, they have finished their job for the morning. We know that you cannot argue with government, but they will have to find away to transfer this dumpsite to another place. It is not healthy at all.”

Focus on city centre

Interestingly, while AEBP has been foot-dragging in waste collection from the suburbs, investigations by Blueprint Weekend revealed that the board has been going the extra mile in evacuating wastes in the metropolis, especially in Maitama, Gwarinpa, Asokoro, and other highbrow areas.

Hardly will you visit the areas which are inhabited mostly by the high and mighty in Abuja without sighting AEPB trucks loading waste, whereas the same cannot be said of suburbs.

In a chat with our correspondent, a security man in Maitama, who simply gave his name as Musa, said AEPB was providing “eye service”, as they would really run into trouble “if a minister or senator comes out to see that his waste was not evacuated for days, unlike the suburbs predominantly inhabited by low income earners.

“You can’t compare Maitama or Gwarinpa to places like Nyanya, Karu, or the other local places. This is a big man area. AEPB knows that they must do their jobs and satisfy the big ogas otherwise they will go in for it.

“Wealthy people don’t like inconveniences, so the focus has to be at the city centre. Others can complain to high heavens as long as the rich men are satisfied AEPB is doing very well,” he said.

War against motorcyclists

Interestingly, while residents have been complaining of being suffocated by stench emanating from the dump sites across the FCT, AEPB has been waging war against hawkers, prostitutes, motorcyclists and street urchins in different parts of the FCT.

It’s common sight to see motorcyclists crashing into people and object while  fleeing from AEPB taskforce that sometimes goes in a convoy of as many as three or four vans.

Blueprint Weekend investigations further revealed that the AEPB joint task force comprising of officials of the board, personnel of NSCDC and armed policemen usually patrol the metropolis, arresting motorcyclists that stray into the city despite an existing ban of commercial motorcycle drivers within the city centre.

“Don’t mind them. They are just looking for money. If they arrest you or your okada you will be released once you pay. The money does not even get to the office as long as you have cash with you.

“The task force team are just a bunch of greedy criminals harassing innocent okada riders because they are in uniform,” a motorcyclist told our correspondent.

Ironically, just behind the glamour of Next Cash and Carry supermarket is a dump site threatening the health of residents of Jahi 1 settlement. Blueprint Weekend checks revealed that residents avoid the dump site like plague. Those who are courageous to continue on the path have to cover their nose with handkerchiefs and face towels.

To access their homes or a refreshment spot known to residents and visitors as Forest, Jahi 1 residents give the dump site a wide berth by passing through Kado Kuchi Village.

Hawkers take to flight

While the city is being held to ransom by overflowing waste and motorcyclists are fleeing from prowling AEPB officials, the fear of the board is the beginning of wisdom for hawkers at Berger Junction, Area 1/ Area 3 Junction, Wuse Zone 2/ Zone 6, Kubwa-Zuba Express Road.

Further checks by Blueprint Weekend revealed a hide and seek game being played by AEPB officials and hawkers. It was gathered that while the hawkers go about their ‘illegal’ business of hawking products along major roads and popular bus stops in urban centres for their livelihood, the team AEPB, which perceives them as defacing the environment, usually takes the hawkers unawares with members of the teams jumping down commando-like even before the vehicles grind completely to a halt. In most instances the hawkers and their wares are seized by the team but in other cases the hawkers abandon or throw them down as the run for the dear life.

In different parts of the metropolis, you find hawkers escaping in different directions on sighting Hilux trucks laden with policemen and officials of the AEPB. Sometimes even police patrol teams on different missions are mistaken for the taskforce. In such situation you find the hawkers return to their positions as soon as they get a clearer view of the trucks. To checkmate activities of these hawkers, the AEPB officials have set up makeshift stations at designated areas.

Speaking to our correspondent one of the hawkers said: “The irony of the operations of AEPB is that they are just concentrating on chasing hawkers, because they extort money from us when they seize our products.

“We pay a certain fine before they can release our wares. Look at this waste bin, it has been overflowing for days, you won’t see them bother to evacuate it until God touches their heart. This country will never get better when touts are given uniform to harass innocent people earning a living.”

…Prostitutes too

Tales abound of the board’s harassment of prostitutes as well as those mistaken for prostitutes. In delivering on its mandate, the FCTA joint task force team, April 17, 2019, stormed the premises of a popular nightclub, Caramelo Lounge and Suites, located at Utako District and arrested 34 women.

Similarly, on April 24 and April 26, barely 10 days after the raid on Caramelo nightclub, police operatives raided different clubs within the metropolis and arrested more than sixty women for “hanging around nightclubs.”

Health implications

In an interview with Premium Times, a professor of virology, Oyewale Tomori, said many of the outbreaks of infectious diseases in Nigeria were due to the way the people manage their waste, stating that, over the years, Nigeria has become dirtier, allowing rodents, bacteria, and other diseases vectors to find their ways into homes, even as he cited the ongoing Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria as an example.

Tomori said poor waste management is the reason the country keeps experiencing the outbreak of diseases such as cholera, Yellow fever, malaria, and diarrhoea, even as he said rodents no longer live in the bush, but have become tenants in homes of many; while eating from the dumps around the houses.

“There has been no pathological change in the strain of the disease or has there been a change in the mode of its transmission. The constant rise in the yearly incidence is as a result of the huge dumps in most areas in the country. Many of these diseases, their hosts feed on the heap on the dumps which are gradually creeping to our doorsteps.

“Some of the dumps have found their ways into the drainages and waterways thereby blocking up drainages and contaminating sources of water. Why should rodents live in the bush when there is food available in the dumps? Our dirty habits and lack of effective sanitation have led to the opportunity for rodents to easily transmit diseases.”

Lawyers react

In an interview with our correspondent, a lawyer and Executive Director, Global Rights (Nigeria), Mrs Biodun Baiyewu, said the harassment of motorcyclists, hawkers and FCT residents by officials of AEPB “was becoming unbecoming.”

She implored the board to focus on its mandate of evacuating wastes and keeping the environment clean “and not to intimidate law abiding citizens trying to earn a living in the guise of ridding the nation’s capital of undesirable elements.”

According to her, “Section 17 (2) (C) of the constitution states that policies of government must be humane. Dignity of citizens must be enhanced and maintained. When compared with the AEPB Act, the board is not doing a good job at all by going after hawkers and motorcyclists. I don’t even want to talk about the prostitutes they have been arresting during raids on nightclubs, even when such is not stipulated in AEBP laws.

“If AEPB says it wants to get rid of the poor in Abuja, then government should create jobs and provide enabling environment for hawkers. How is AMAC creating jobs by arresting hawkers and sending them to jail?

“The rent for shops in Abuja is outrageous, yet, residents who hawk to stay out of crime are arrested. It doesn’t make sense to me. Why focus on eradicating the city of poor people and making poverty a crime in Abuja? AEPB should focus on its mandate of evacuating wastes.”

Slightly disagreeing with Baiyewu, a legal practitioner and Director of Tap Initiative, Barrister Martin Obono, in a chat with Blueprint Weekend said Section 35 (1) (d) empowers the AEPB to arrest hawkers operating in unapproved areas, but frowned at the mode of arrest of culprits.

He opposed the way hawkers are hounded into vehicles to be tried in mobile courts at Old Parade Ground, Area 10, just as he revealed that the hawkers are forced to plead guilty to offences they do not even know about or sentenced to terms in prison without legal representation.

“I am not against AEPB arresting hawkers operating in areas not designated for such purposes, but I am against the mode of arrest. You need to see AEPB officials chasing after motorcycle operators or hawkers to understand what I am talking about. In the process of the chase, some of them have accidents and die, so what is the purpose?

“Again, even those they arrest are not allowed legal representation. They are simply crammed in vehicles and taking to a mobile court.

“The arrested hawkers are forced to plead guilty to crimes they do not even understand and then dumped in prison if they can’t afford N5,000 fine. Every accused person needs legal representation to be able to appeal against any unfavourable judgment,” he said.

AEPB reacts

Referring to an interview he granted Premium Times in May, on wastes taking over Abuja, the Head, AEPB Information and Outreach Programme Unit, Muktar Ibrahim, told Blueprint Weekend that, “It is easy to understand why people dump waste indiscriminately, though the agency regularly embarks on sensitisation campaigns to make residents realise that waste needs to be properly containerised.”

Mr Ibrahim said domestic wastes are meant to be disposed of in the green plastic waste bins of the agency and explained the arrangement for waste management in the FCT, revealing that illegal waste dumps within the city are a problem, but that the agency has embarked on waste segregation; as a means of waste disposal, even as he said his agency had been advising the area councils to focus on making their areas clean.

He blamed the lack of collaboration and coordination among the area councils and the AEPB as the reasons why dumpsites are springing up in odd locations, even as he said there are about 27 contractors cleaning the districts in FCT and there are plans to increase the number to 48.

“In Abuja, we have six area councils and they are expected to take charge of areas under their jurisdiction. AEPB concentrates, to a large extent, on the Federal Capital City, which is different from the FCT. But we extend our supervisory roles to even these satellites settlements. We also have an agency that provides, amongst other services, waste management in the satellite towns. That is the Satellite Town Development Department (STDD).

“So, together with the Area Council environmental departments, we try to give some services in the area of environmental service to all of these communities. We are now talking about the 3 Rs, which is reduce, reuse, and recycle. Some recycling outfits are springing up in town and AEPB is also dealing with the issues of recycling. The objective is to teach residents waste separation.”

Continuing, he said: “We have some facilities manned by AEPB. We have a Wooper wastewater treatment plant, which is the biggest in the West African sub-region. Then we have the Gosa dump site; that is where our solid waste goes to, which is strictly for the city. Gosa, which is around Idu, is quite far from most of the suburbs.

“We advised them to concentrate on these satellite towns and collaborate with AEPB. If the area councils collaborate more with the AEPB, I think we can really reduce or even do away with problems regarding waste management in the FCT. I don’t know how Bwari area councils manage their waste, but I know there is a lot of abandonment of responsibility. However, there should be a means like contractors that can evacuate these wastes.

“Somewhere like Gwagwalada is not serviced by any contractor and it is likely that this happens in most of the area councils. We step in when the waste in the areas get to the stage of becoming an epidemic threat. AEPB is contacted and we go and carry out what we call intervention exercises. We have been preaching that people should be more responsible in the way they manage waste.”

Hawkers at risk

Also speaking in a separate interview with Leadership, Mr. Mukhtar Ibrahim said the improvement in the city of Abuja is not without its many challenges in terms of manpower and resources. He said that on a daily basis the enforcement arm of the AEPB goes out, both in the morning and night to ensure that they clear the city of all forms of nuisance.

He further stated that hawking on the street could pose danger to the people, because some of the so-called hawkers may be criminals pretending to be traders. He said there have been cases of people’s valuables being snatched and some may use it as an opportunity to assault other people, especially without the presence of law enforcement officials.

He said, according to the law empowering the agency, anyone caught is charged to court, that it is the court that fines them. The punishment on conviction by the court is a fine of N5,000 or three months imprisonment.

He said: “When we talk of nuisance, we mean things that are not legally permitted to be in the city. Just like the street hawkers, the beggars, street urchins and others. We try to remove them to make the city safe and healthy for residents. It is a lot of challenge and I keep appealing to the residents of Abuja to join us in ensuring a safe and clean environment, first and foremost by not patronising the hawkers, because when you patronise them, you are also encouraging them to come here.

“We believe that since hawking on the street of Abuja is illegal, there is no excuse one can give and there is no way you can explain or excuse hawking by this able young men and women, because it is breaking the law. So, you cannot justify illegality on the basis of sympathy. They are not supposed to hawk, except at designated areas. When we talk about designated areas, we have the markets, we have enclosed commercial centers.

“I want to believe too that even in the garden where people relax, there could be a bit of buying and selling but certainly not on the street where you find them waving their wares in and out of the traffic. So, if you want to survive, you should do it within the ambit of the law and not by breaking the law. Our mandate here is clear and straight forward, which is to remove nuisance from the street and that is what we do.

“If you want to make a living, there are other agencies that are concerned with empowerment of people and the unemployed. But they hardly get imprisoned and the fine is affordable, maybe that is why they keep coming back to the streets or junctions to litter them up with used packages and other stuff that constitute environmental degradation.”

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