Executive chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Hon. Abdullahi Adamu Candido, has called on the general public, particularly property owners in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to pay their tenement rates to the Council’s coffers promptly.
The chairman made the call yesterday at a press conference organised to “correct the misinformation arising from a recent High Court of FCT judgement delivered on April 12, 2018, which held that AMAC and the other five area councils had no power under the constitution to make bye-laws for the collection of tenement rates from property owners.”
He stressed that it was the responsibility of the Council to “defend what is legally guaranteed by the Constitution,” Candido said local governments, by law, were the only constituted authority to collect tenement rates, explaining that “this position is responsible for past judgements given by competent courts in favour of the area council.” Candido recalled that “in August 2017, the National Assembly lifted the suspension earlier placed on tenement rates’ collection and conveyed a formal approval to FCT area councils for the collection of tenement rates within the Federal Capital Territory.”
“This was after addressing the issue that led to the suspension under the provision of relevant sections of the constitution of Nigeria and Section 13 of Federal Capital Territory Act CAP 128 laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 as well as the judicial authority in Court of Appeal judgments in Afdin Ventures Ltd & 2 Others vs Chairman, Abuja Municipal Area Council (May 12, 2014),” he said.
He said “the Court of Appeal which gave judgment in favour of AMAC is higher in hierarchy than the High Court or other lower courts in Nigeria,” and asked property owners to, therefore, disregard the April 12, 2018 judgement.
