Fake revenue collectors nabbed in Enugu

From CHUKS EZE, Enugu

Seven alleged fake revenue collection agents have been apprehended by the Chairman of Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA), Mr Joseph Onoh and a team of security operatives.

The suspects who had claimed to be staff of the state Ministry of Environment and Enugu North Local Government Area, respectively were already cooling off in police custody as at the time of filing this report.

When the Chairmen, Taskforce, in the Ministry of Environment, Mr Amaechi Odoh, was invited to identify the suspects, he said that none of the affected individuals was a staff of the ministry.

“None of them is a staff of our ministry and none of the documents found on them are fake; they did not emanate from our ministry,” he said.

Various fake items were recovered from the suspects at the point arrest. They include fake identification documents, fake Ministry of Environment receipts and demand notice forms; and fake Youth Empowerment Levy receipts bearing Enugu North Local Government Area, among others.
Some building materials, such as cartons of tiles and bags of cement among others, which they had seized from their victims were also recovered from the suspects.

Addressing journalists shortly before the suspects were handed to the Police, the ECTDA boss explained that he had intercepted the men while on a routine inspection, adding that “On my way from inspection, I intercepted them when I heard some people screaming, crying for help and running out of a compound at GRA.

“They were already driving away and we had initially thought that maybe they were robbers.

“So, the security agents with me quickly intercepted them only for us to find out that they were carrying out illegal duties under the guise of youth empowerment.

“Their excuse to me was that there was no longer political thug jobs and that since elections had ended that they cannot go and rob, and so, they had engaged in Youth Empowerment (drive) by collecting building levies and other things.

“We have apprehended these ones, we will hand them over to the Police and eventually charge them to court. And if found guilty, the law is clearly stated – six months imprisonment.”

While describing the action of the suspected impostors as illegal and economic sabotage, Mr Onoh pointed out that all the monies that they were collecting from their victims were never remitted to the consolidated single account created by the state government.

Meanwhile, the suspects told journalists that they were not criminals, insisting that they were employed by the Chairman of Enugu North Local Government Area, Hon Emeka Onunze, on one hand, and Enugu State government through the ministry of environment.

They pleaded with the ECTDA Chairman to allow them to go promising never to engage in such acts again.

“We are not criminals, we were employed by the Executive Chairman of Enugu North LGA, Hon (Emeka) Onunze. He can identify us.

“Please, beg the Chairman to have mercy on us. I am ready to sign an undertaking that I will never engage in this job again. I accepted to do this job because of hardship.

“I was a Peugeot auto mechanic when the vehicle brand was still in vogue in Nigeria. But you know that Peugeot has since gone. After a long period of staying idle and unable to fend for my family, I they gave me this job and I accepted,” he said.
He said that he did not hear that government had banned all local government in the city centre from collecting various building levies.

It would be recalled that the ECTDA had in a compliance notice it issued on June 8, 2021, barred Enugu North, Enugu East and Enugu South council areas which fall within the capital city from collecting sundry building levies and subsequently directed security agencies to apprehend defaulters and bring them to book.