The Head of Public Relation, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) Mr Joe Ukairo has given reasons why the cleaning of Federal Capital City Territory (FCT) solely rest on the shoulders of independent contractors instead of the agency.
In an interview with LEADERSHIP SUNDAY in Abuja, he said that since the city was divided into about 20 districts, the cleaning of each districts was handled by 20 different contractors for administrative convenience.
“The city is divided into about twenty districts and each district has twenty independent contractors that are handling various districts. It is like that for administrative convenience, so the waste collection is not directly handled by AEPB but we directly handle some areas like the expressway.
He also disclosed that the cleaning of Satellite towns in FCT was the primary responsibility of area council but AEPB intervene having discovered that they lack the manpower and technology to embark on such cleaning services
According to him, “We cannot continue like that because it’s over stretching our meager resources, workforce and equipment.
Government is only told to rise up and do what they are supposed to do and that falls within the jurisdiction of the Minister of State for FCT, Mrs Olajumoke Akinjide who is working with Satellite Town Development Agency to fashion out a waste management policy and strategy that is fit for the area councils and local communities within the area council.
“If the VIO and FERMA were up and doing, ordinary citizens will not fill potholes and begin to extort people but we are training and re-training our enforcement squad and we are now choosing our battles because we discovered that we cannot fight all the battle.
“The enforcement squad needs maximum support from law enforcement agencies since they are just civilians trained to do paramilitary work that does not have any weapon to defend themselves against attack.