Suspected illegal environment task force operators have taken over the Ebonyi State capital, Abakaliki, molesting shop owners in their attempt to force residents to buy disposable waste bucket.
The group operating with tricycles, otherwise known as Keke, recently confiscated goods from shop owners who questioned the legality of their operations.
Speaking with one of the victims, Mr Solomon Nweke, a phone accessories dealers at St Patrick Road, Kpiri-kpiri, opposite the Ugo Martins Drive, he lamented that the group with the Ebonyi State Ministry of Environment IGR Board boldly encrypted receipt, stormed his shop and requested that he pay fifteen thousand, five hundred naira, (N15,000), for not obtaining the approved environmental waste bin.
An action, according to Mr Nweke, forced many shop owners to start closing their businesses as all efforts to convince them that there’s no public notice that directed them to pay such money fell on deaf ear.
He narrated that the team leader who identified his name as Mr Amechi ransacked all the shops within the area and later made away with his bunch of Oraimo phone cord.
Other victims, Mrs Nwiyi Ukamaka, and Engr Chibueze Njoku, narrated their ugly experiences and blamed Ebonyi State government for introduction of multiple taxation even when they are aware of the economic situation poor masses are facing in the country.
However, the Head of Department in charge of Environmental Health Service, Mrs Uzoke Jacinta revealed that the ministry did not contract the sale of waste bin bucket in the State, noting that the ministry has received a lot of complains and warned those sabotaging the ministry to desist from such heinous act.
When DAILY POST contacted the state Commissioner for Environment, Mr Victor Chukwu, he confirmed the activities of the saboteurs and urged the general public to report those involved for arrest and prosecution.
CREDIT; DAILY POST