We Hold Your Brief

Dear Counsel, I would like to commend you on a job well done. I don’t know if this is the right avenue to air this, but I know that if it is not, you can redirect my observations to the appropriate quarters.

I want to commend the Abuja Environmental Board for working hard to keep Abuja beautiful. However, there is something that has been causing me much concern, which is, the way the Task Force goes about ensuring compliance with the rules.

Sometime ago, a sister of mine at UTC in Area 10 saw a man beating up a teenager of about 14 or 15 years. When she sought to know the reason why he was beating the teenager up, immediately two other men grabbed my sister and tried to throw her into their van. Of course, she began to shout and some people came to her aid, while the Task Force personnel said she was obstructing the course of justice.

They couldn't take her with them because of her shouts and the crowd, but some people who came to her aid were carted away to Suleja Prison. On getting to the Task Force Office in Area 3 to lay a complaint, family members were asked to pay Five Thousand Naira to bail the person who was thrown into their van. The Task Force Officials then called the van to drop off the bailed person.

Now, while I understand the difficulties in ensuring compliance, but my question is, is there no other way?

We live in a civil society and it would be normal for any woman to ask why a man is beating a teenager, if for nothing, to plead with him to take it easy.

This system of use of brute force does not sit well with me, and even if hawking is a strict liability offence, should one be subjected to such brutal assault and battery, which in any case, is unreasonable.

I think the society as well as the Task Force, want to see a beautiful city, but chasing down these hawkers and beating them up smacks of injustice, most especially as these hawkers can be regarded as the poor in society, trying to eke out a living. What then is the way forward?

Ramat Muhammad, Abuja.

Dear Mr. Muhammad, Your observations are quite appropriate and I have no doubt that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, the FCT Environmental Task Force Chairman, or their subordinates will surely read this.

The essence of the law, which came into effect on September 16, 2010 is to assist area councils in environmental sanitation policy formulation, keeping the FCT clean, among other things.

It is however, illegal and condemnable, for the Task Force to resort to brute force in implementing and enforcing this law. What they are permitted to do, is to peacefully arrest violators of the law, and bring them to a Magistrate Court of the mobile courts set up for this purpose. They mainly impose fines.

Anyone brutalised, or from whom money is extorted, can seek legal redress through the appropriate authorities. Such persons can get a lawyer to petition the office of the FCT Minister, the National Human Rights Commission or the Office of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria. Nigerians must not be dehumanised, in the name of enforcing a simple environmental law.