Waste bills: AEPB moves to seal defaulting MDAs

The Director of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Baba Shehu Lawan, has said the board will seal up government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), corporate institutions and residences that are yet to pay their waste bills.  Lawan said only 20 per cent of AEPB’s charges were paid annually.  In a statement by the board’s Head […]

The Director of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Baba Shehu Lawan, has said the board will seal up government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), corporate institutions and residences that are yet to pay their waste bills. 

Lawan said only 20 per cent of AEPB’s charges were paid annually. 

In a statement by the board’s Head of Information and Outreach Unit, Muktar Ibrahim, the director said indebtedness to the board ran into billions of naira for its services, including sewer connections, liquid and solid waste collection and disposal.

He said the board had commenced a debt recovery drive involving the sealing up of premises of its numerous debtors across the Federal Capital City (FCC). 

“All MDAs, corporate institutions and individuals owing AEPB should, as a matter of necessity, own up to their responsibility and pay up their debts or risk having their premises sealed up,” he said.

He said the board recently visited some of its debtors. “Premises visited include Gateway Plaza with over N10 million debt; Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC); National Women Development Centre whose bill topped N31 million; AFRI Hotels owing for the last 3 years; and Maina Court, N11.8 million.” 

Lawan, was quoted to have said the directive to seal up debtors’ premises would be carried out to the letter, adding that waste channels of such premises would be sealed up until their bills were cleared.