How AMAC task team, thugs beat journalists, FCT staff over revenue collection

Officials of the Department of Outdoor Advertising and Signages (DOAS) in the Federal Capital Territory Administration as well as Journalists attached to the office of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), were on Tuesday attacked by suspected thugs working as “revenue officers” for the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).

During the fracas which happened around the Games Village junction, three officials of the Department of Outdoor Advertising and Signages and a camera man attached to the office of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Godwin Ameh, were not lucky as his camera was seized before some policemen and operatives of the Directorate of Road Traffic Services came to their rescue.

The Daily Times authoritatively reports that no fewer than 11 of the suspected thugs have been arrested and are currently been detained by men from the Wuye Police Division.

The assaulted DOAS staff are Ebele Nwokocha, Emeghara Justice Ebere and Alhaji Haliru Ismail.

The Area Council “revenue collectors” who were mostly made up of young men reportedly brought in from a south-south state had in the past clashed with DOAS in the discharge of its mandate.

Trouble started on Wednesday when the Council revenue collectors impounded several branded vehicles and imposed fines on the owners. Upon complaints from the affected residents and organisations who had already paid their Mobile Advertisement Rates to DOAS and obtained advertisement permits, the department moved in to secure the release of the impounded vehicles.

However, the situation degenerated when a certain Terry Okan, now at large, led over 30 suspected thugs armed with hockey batons and sticks to assault the officials of DOAS and journalists who were at the scene.

While journalists and others scampered to safety, the thugs abducted three officials of DOAS, with the two sides later ending up at the Wuye Police station.

Briefing journalists outside the Wuye Police station, Director of DOAS, Dr. Babagana Adam, who also escaped being hurt, said: “I was called by two persons in particular and several have sent text messages. One is Brooklyn hotel, Lokogoma who called me yesterday that his vehicle has been confiscated. The second one was Access Bank that called saying their vehicle had been attacked. The third one, I cannot immediately remember the name now because of the circumstances. I felt since we have three policemen and the team, we could go and liberate them and release the vehicles.

“We did not go to fight. We just went to talk as we did at Utako junction where they listened to us and released the vehicles.

“When we came back we were mobbed by the thugs that have been brought, as we learned, from outside the FCT. They are thugs as you can see, they look like bouncers, and they were imported into Abuja just to settle that scores that DOAS should not collect the Mobile Advertisement Rates from FCT residents. It is to the Glory of God that some of us are standing here.

“If FCT wants high internally generated revenue and standards, we need to protect those who do the work. We need more security, not to molest but to do the work. Some of us have the zeal to work, we do not want to be arm chair executives, which is why we are in the field”, he said.

One of the DOAS staff who was assaulted, Ebere Nwokocha, called on relevant authorities to assist the department in the discharge of its mandate.

When the suspects were interviewed by journalists, they said they were recruited by one “Peter” and are staff of the department of “Loading and Offloading of the Abuja Municipal Trade and Investment Company”.