Rivers State government and Scrap Dealers are quarrelling over the right to remove discarded materials from refuse dump sites that are almost overtaking some roads in Port Harcourt, the state capital, writes CLARICE AZUATALAM.
Dumpsites litter Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. Until March 25, there was no dispute over who has the right to remove scraps from these dumpsites. That has changed with the creation of the Task Force on Removal of Scrap Metals (TRSM). The agency claims the right to control and regulate those who remove scraps from dumpsites, a development which has pitched it against members of the Blessed Scrap Metal Dealers Association (BSMDA) in Mile 3, Port Harcourt. They say their association is registered and, therefore, no government agency has authority over its activities.
The task force has imposed stringent conditions on the scrap dealers. In a document titled: Scrap Metals Dealer/Vendor to the scrap dealers association in which they were asked to purchase an application form for N5,000, the taskforce stipulated three categories for registration. They are: Category A: Major Scrap Metals Dealers/Merchant, to register with N250, 000; Category B: Scrap Metals Vendor/ Consultant/Scrap Metals Spare Parts Dealers, to register with N150, 000; and Category C: Scrap Metal Hawkers, to register with N50, 000.
The conditions attached for the return of the application form are: two passport photographs; evidence of previous supply of scraps job done; tax clearance certificate for the past three years; evidence of payment for registration form and other necessary particulars.
The document, which was attached to a Demand Notice signed by the Chairman, TRSM, Chief Solomon Chuku, also gave the scrap dealers a seven days ultimatum to process their application with the taskforce in Rivers State Ministry of Environment.
The demand notice, which was not dated, inspired repeated visits from operatives of the taskforce to the premises of scrap dealers in Mile 3.
Uncomfortable with the demands of the taskforce, the scrap dealers briefed their lawyer, Mr Cosmas Enweluzo, who petitioned the Commissioner of Environment and the Commissioner of Police, Tunde Ogunsakin.
Later, about 13 members of the scrap dealers were arrested by the police at their business premises, on Abuja By-pass, at Mile 3 Area of Port Harcourt for reasons they claimed they did not know.
The scrap dealers also claimed that the TRSM impounded two trucks belonging to their members and the trucks were parked at the Rivers State Dump Site in Eliozu, Port Harcourt operated by the taskforce.
The Chairman of the Blessed Scrap Dealers Association, Mr, Ernest Duru, told the Niger Delta Report that most of those arrested were customers. Although all the 13 people arrested by the police were later released on bail, July 26, one of those arrested, a driver, was not so lucky. Although he was released, the particulars of the vehicle he drove to the premises of Blessed Scrap Dealers were withheld by the police who insisted that the particulars would only be released if Duru makes a personal appearance at the Police Monitoring Unit to see the commander.
Though Duru said he did not know why his customers were arrested but Chuku said they were arrested in connection with an incident that took place at the Eliozu Dump site when some persons forcibly entered the place, beat up the security man on duty; drove off with the two trucks impounded by operatives of the taskforce as well as carting away 50 old car batteries.
Chuku said: “They had threatened our men many times. They have threatened to elicit the assistance of ‘area boys’ to chase away our officers to prevent them from carrying out their lawful duties. We are a government agency and we will use the instrumentality of the law to discharge our duty.”
The Chairman of NASWDEN, Comrade Anayo Ogbu and the Public Relations Officer, Comrade Rufus Agubama, stated that “some people purporting to be scrap dealers in Rivers State who broke into the premises of Rives State Ministry of Environment over the weekend and forcibly removed some items belonging to the Rivers State government are not members of NASWDEN”, adding that “the position of NASWDEN Rivers State council has been and will remain that all challenges to its’ corporate existence will be fought by due process of law.”
Enweluzo has petitioned the Rivers State Commissioner of Environment, Dr. Nyema Weli. He copied Governor Rotimi Amaechi and the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Worgu Boms.
He also copied Ogunsakin, the Minister of Police Affairs and the Inspector General of Police.
Enweluzo stated that the scrap dealers “are into the business of gathering of scrap materials which include metal scrap and aluminum materials out of the streets where they are littered and evacuate them to places where some are thrown away and the useful ones and/or transformed into valuable metal sheets and rods.”
Referring to the Demand Notice which his clients were served, Enweluzo said it was undated and served on July 1, by persons who identified themselves as operatives of TRSM. Just barely two days after his clients were served the notice, the said taskforce started “harassing, arresting and impounding the goods and trucks of members of clients as well as arresting them to police stations where huge sums of money are extorted from them before they are released”.
He went on: “Of particular interest, among other incidences of intimidation and harassment is the one that occurred on July 3, when two of our clients’ members, Basil Oguegbu and Peter Arihalam bought some scrap materials and loaded same in a Vanagon Truck. On their way to their dump site at Mile 3, Diobu, Port Harcourt, they were accosted by some men in company of some policemen and were arrested alongside two of their loaders and their truck impounded and taken away to somewhere at a dump site at Eliozu, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, where same is still being detained”.
Enweluzo added: “The same fate also befell another of our clients’ members, Ifeanyi Ezeji, whose fork-light machine which he uses in loading and offloading scrap materials was impounded on July 4, 2014, by the same men of the Tax Force with the aid of some men of the Nigeria Police Force.
“We know that no good government the world over would want to deny its citizen the dynamics of life to wit: Life, Liberty and Property which the government on its own cannot solely provide for the people as a result of numerous needs calling for attention at any given point in time. Thus, every reasonable government encourages its citizens to engage in meaningful project geared towards personal sustenance and survival. The action of the Taskforce- to say the least – is a direct antithesis of life, liberty and property which is the hallmark of every democratic society and setting.”
Enweluzo added that this was being carried out by “the unlawful and malicious use of men of the Nigeria Police Force by persons parading themselves as TSRM in Rivers State”.
Ogunsakin denied the deployment of policemen to accompany TRSM operatives during their monitoring operations.
The CP promised to contact the area commander of MOPOL 19, Port Harcourt, to find out if he had approved the deployment of armed mobile policemen to the TRSM.
In his words: “I have not approved the deployment of our men to accompany any taskforce. I have resisted repeated pleas from the Rivers State Traffic Management Agency (TIMARIV), because I am aware that such opportunity can be exploited to perpetrate all sorts of atrocities.”
Chuku said he was surprised at the claim of the CP.
Enweluzo is expressing regrets that he cannot take the matter to court to seek redress for his clients because of the on-going strike by judicial workers.
For Chuku, dialogue is the way out “because government needs to regulate what transpires within its jurisdiction”.
