‘AMAC tenement rate law exempts only natives’

The president of the Abuja Original Inhabitants Development Association (OIDA), an umbrella body of the indigenous people of the FCT, Pastor Danladi Jeji, said the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) Tenement Rate Law 2012 has clearly exempted the natives of the council from paying tenement rate. Jeji, while speaking with newsmen on Sunday, in Abuja, […]

The president of the Abuja Original Inhabitants Development Association (OIDA), an umbrella body of the indigenous people of the FCT, Pastor Danladi Jeji, said the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) Tenement Rate Law 2012 has clearly exempted the natives of the council from paying tenement rate.

Jeji, while speaking with newsmen on Sunday, in Abuja, said the AMAC tenement rate law under Section 10, 2012 exempts only the natives of the council.

He said such exemption is in recognition of the indigenous peoples’ rights to their ancestral lands, which he said was in line with the Nigerian government’s policy of protecting the interests of indigenous communities.

“So, I don’t see the reason for the sudden departure and change if such a law still exists,” he said.

Recall that the OIDA had last week kicked against the decision of the authorities of AMAC to demand natives of the council to pay tenement rate, in which the group wrote to the FCT Administration complaining about it.