Abuja, July 29, 2016 -Residents of Abuja eking out a living from self employment are not finding it easy with officials of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).
We gathered that these officials operate at liberty imposing tariffs they dim fit on businessmen who are struggling to make a living. We gathered that some of them are often dressed in mufti with a bib or dressed in green for those who chase after Abuja taxi drivers.
“The most notorious of this lot are the ones that go to offices looking to extort and obtain money from the business owners”, a source who is a victim has said.
“They came to my office saying I should pay N150,000. Right there, I negotiated that same amount to N50,000”, he said adding that it would be impossible to negotiate if the fee was set out by law based on certain parameters.
“How was it possible for someone posing as a collection agent to just negotiate it with the business owner, just like that? On whose authority?”, he queried. Another victim in one of the plazas in the Jabi area of Abuja narrated how five hefty looking men, dressed in mufti stormed his office.
“What ensued could easily have passed for a regular armed robbery case except for the fact that these ones had no guns. Five of them came, claiming to be collection agents from the now notorious AMAC. One of them said that my rate is N150,000 because I have a large office. This person was yet to enter my office yet he determined the size of the office by merely imagining a sum.
“But he said that is how we do it! And after a heated argument he raised it to N300, 000 and issued a document to that effect which he signed as Bulus Aba. Mr. Bulus Aba also made it clear the stipulated amount was different from other AMAC charges, which he promised would come later”, the victim said.
Our correspondent reported that there are several cases of AMAC officials or those claiming to be AMAC victimizing shop and business owners in Abuja.
The victims are saying that activities of AMAC has made Abuja the most expensive place to do any business in Nigeria and called on government to look into activities of AMAC officials and bring the situation to a halt.
