Some government offices, hotels, plazas, and other businesses may have their day-to-day operations hindered over disposal debts, The Abuja Environmental Protection Board has said.
The director of AEPB, Osilama Briamah, who disclosed this, said the board may resort to sealing up the offices of the organisations who are indebted to it.
In a statement he issued in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on Monday, he said that the was disposal debt owed to the board is over N10 billion
Briamah noted that the measure is sequel to the task team set up by the FCTA permanent secretary, Olusade Adesola, to recover over N10 billion owed the AEPB by several government agencies, and business premises and residential apartments.
“As workers prepare to resume work after the Easter holiday, some government offices, hotels, plazas and other business premises may be under lock and key due to debts owed to the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB),” he said.
He said that the task team had been mandated to apply all legal means to recover the enormous sums of money from the debtors.
The director explained that the debts accumulated over time due to the failure of those concerned to pay for services rendered to them by the AEPB.
“All of us desire to live and work in a world-class city compared to other beautiful cities around the world.
“Unfortunately, many agencies, residential apartments, hotels, plazas and so on, are not paying their bills as expected.
“That makes it difficult to raise the money needed to manage a mega-city like Abuja”, he said.
He said beginning from 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, April 19, based on a court order already obtained by the AEPB, the task team would embark on a mass seal-up of the affected facilities to recover the huge money being owed.
Briamah added that the only option left was to apply the legal means of enforcing the court order to seal up the affected premises.