Officials of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) have arrested some tipping truck owners and impounded their trucks over alleged illegal excavation activities within the capital city.
The Director, AEPB, Isah Shaibu who led the board’s enforcement team to the sites said the illegalities had to stop to save the environment for present and future generations.
He reiterated the determination of the administration to stop all manner of abuse of the environment through illegal excavation of the earth and mining activities.
“Let me make it abundantly clear, if Abuja had been destroyed by our fore fathers we would not have Abuja today. You have to leave this environment in its best form for generations unborn. “You have seen the consequences of soil erosion in the eastern region of this country today. The land is tight, a lot of development and excavation here and there and this is why today you have this problems. So it is better we sustain the environment for the future,” he said.
Earlier, the deputy director, monitoring and enforcement unit in the board, Uche Agbanusi said the suspects arrested would be charged to court without delay, saying “It is only the court that can decide their fate because I have no power to set them free.”
Reacting to the arrests, the auditor of the Independent Tipper Workers Association of Abuja, Saleh Suleman who spoke on behalf of the suspects urged the government to demarcate a specific area in the capital territory where people can excavate sharp sand for building.
He claimed that the association had earlier submitted a document to the former director of the AEPB asking for an excavation site but was yet to hear from the board.
“This one we are doing we know it is illegal but we are doing it because we don’t have appropriate place for us to do this business,” he added.
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