In a bid to ensure strict compliance with tenement rate payment, the officials of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) have embarked on an aggressive enforcement exercise against defaulters in the council.
To this effect, AMAC officials stormed EFAB Metropolis Estate, with its enforcement exercise code named “Operation Show Your Proof of Payment”, insisting on payment of outstanding ground total of about N559,000, it accumulated since 2022 till date.
According to the Council, the enforcement, was in the wake of the expiration of a court order, which gave the Estate a space of two weeks to comply, failure of which AMAC can enforce full payment of the tenement rate.
It added that the court of competent jurisdiction had delivered judgment in its favour that every Nigerian has the responsibility to pay his or her due taxes to relevant constituted authorities in the country.
Speaking during the exercise, the Coordinator of AMAC Tenement Rate, Ambassador Dr. Alewa Nasiru, disclosed that managers of the Estate since 2022 have been adamant about the compliance with the due tenement rate payment, while other estates have been complying with theirs.
He noted that although, the residents within the EFAB Metropolis are willing to comply, but the facility manager and the developer are obstructing the Council from collecting such levy because of their facility fee, which is not constitutional.
He said: “We have served them the court processes. And we have even served court order. And today marks the two weeks of that court order, because the court order gives a space of two weeks, if one cannot comply, the council has the power to come and enforce the full payment of that tenement rate.
“So, this exercise that we call “Operation Show Your Proof of Payment”, if you show your proof of payment that you have complied, then you will be allowed to go, we have nothing to hold you, and you have to go and face your business.
“And since 2022 till date, their ground total is about N559,000 only. And then the rate payable is N120,000 but they allow it to be accrued, to be accumulated to that effect.
“In fact, as I’m talking to you over N600 million, these people (defaulters) are owing the government and then they are refusing to pay and they are calling for development and infrastructure. How does the government provide the infrastructure when you are not playing your role?”.
He recalled that before the enforcement, the estate association approached the council saying “we are not aware of this incident as the facility manager refused to disclose these issues to us, and we are responsible Nigerians, we cannot allow anybody to jeopardize the provision of the constitution, because we are all civil servants”
According to him, “when the residents came to AMAC, they had a fruitful deliberation, only for the council to serve them the bill that contains AMAC account number for payment, that the facility manager outrightly rejected and stopped the council from carrying out its legal responsibility as a government.
“So, the residents, do not have problem, but the developer is holding the council to ransom. He’s holding the residents to ransom, that they cannot do anything, that there is no law in the country, which we are here to prove to them that there is law in Nigeria, which is succinct and sacred, and it can never be desecrated.”
However, the enforcement coordinator revealed that residents of the estate a frame time within which to respond to the final payment demand.
“According to one of the members, the resident, who happens to be the current honourable member of House of Representatives, he said we should give them 24 hours to respond to whatever the constitution asks them to do, as they are law-abiding citizens. We gave them the benefit of the doubt, we shall see their reaction.
“But, I register here that nobody is above the law, and the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which is the constitution, is the supreme law of the land, as it binds on every other person”, he stressed.
On how long the enforcement will last, he said: “We have already commenced, we are watching how the progress will go, because we have responsible Nigerians that will not allow the constitution to be jeopardized or ridiculed.
“They will fulfill and I believe that they will comply with this provision and then everything will be a walkover very soon. Because we have just started.
“We have so many other defaulting estates, but we have not yet concluded and explored all the available means because we have to engage civil interactions to have a cordial understanding. It is only when all efforts to bring them to the tax net are aborted, we can go to the legal process. That is how it is, and we cannot be here without following the due process.
“That is why I want the Nigerians to hear us loudly that AMAC is not harassing anybody. We are following the due process. We have done everything humanity necessary to bring these people to the book that the constitution must be obeyed.”