Enugu state Government has frowned at the activities of those parading themselves as members of the Enugu state Environmental taskforce, extorting money from members of the public, saying that the state government did not set up any taskforce around environmental matters and those parading themselves as members of the taskforce will be punished.
Secretary to the state government, Prof Chidiebere Onyia made this known on Monday in his office, during a meeting with the members of the committee on scavenging he set up.
He explained that the committee was set up to review some of the options that can help address scavenging as a threat to the safety of Ndi Enugu and also to be able to create a structure that allows for legal and recycling process with the Enugu State Waste Management Authority, ESWAMA.
Prof Onyia, who disclaimed the report that a team called “Government House Environmental Taskforce” was set up by the state government with the mandate to collect revenue, warned Enugu people not to pay money to anyone or any taskforce that claims to be working for the government as revenue collectors, stating that the governor has directed that those funds collected illegally by the so called Environment taskforce be recovered immediately.
He said the state government supports entrepreneurial behavior within the scope of the law .
“In December 2024, His Excellency approved that the Secretary to the state government set up a team that will review the concerns we have around scavenging in Enugu state , both security and otherwise. That committee was constituted by some members sitting down here and the job of that committee was very clear..
He said the committee was set up to review some of the options that would help the state government address scavenging as a threat to the safety of Ndi Enugu and also to be able to see how to place a structure that allowed for legal recycling process with ESWAMA to occur.
“We have not done a lot as relates to the recycling part but it came to our knowledge that a task force was set up and the taskforce that was set up was termed, Environmental taskforce
“So, I want to let Ndi Enugu know that there is no task force that has been set up by the government of Enugu state around environmental matters and authorized to collect revenue by people that are supposed to be in that taskforce.
“We are going to find out as a government,who constituted this taskforce. We have tons of evidence and we are investigating who constituted this taskforce and where this revenue had been paid into and we hope for the interest of those that were involved which we already gotten that information.
“We already have the answer to that. Am going to find out also the role that ESWAMA played in this taskforce. We had a lot of petitions here, written to His Excellency, causing the governor to allow that I investigate the matter.
“But he also wanted me to announce that there is no taskforce here, outside the one that I had constituted in this room.2
” These are the only people in that taskforce. Any other persons that are parading themselves as members for the taskforce, outside my knowledge , which means outside the knowledge of the Governor of Enugu state ,because he assigned that I chair this , anything that happened outside my knowledge , the government of Enugu state is not is not involved in this”, he said.
On investigation of the illegal taskforce, Prof Onyia said:
“We are going to find out the process that led to it and will address it very directly and all the people that money had been collected from . I assure you people that we are going to get to the bottom of it. That is why some of these stakeholders were invited here.
” I heard that a recycling committttee was set up and vetted at Government House without my knowledge or approval. I need to understand why. It’s called Government House Environmental taskforce. That’s what was stated in the petition “, he said
He said the evidences were there and the Governor had directed he recover all money that were collected.
“From now henceforth, there is no legal taskforce going around and we are going to set up a second level of authorization on how this matter will be addressed Am going to set up that team and with ESWAMA as authority that is statutorily in charge of environmental matters.. Our revenue team will make sure all revenue will go to state” ,Onyia said.
He maintained that, ” Governor Peter Mbah administration is committed to transparency and accountability”.
Author: Maureen Ikpeama