{"id":67802,"date":"2025-06-11T15:41:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T15:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=67802"},"modified":"2025-06-11T15:41:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T15:41:04","slug":"sewage-overflow-in-garki-banking-district-sparks-bribery-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/06\/11\/sewage-overflow-in-garki-banking-district-sparks-bribery-allegations\/","title":{"rendered":"Sewage Overflow in Garki Banking District Sparks Bribery Allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Huldah Shado<\/strong><\/p>\n

A major environmental hazard is currently threatening residents, workers, and visitors in the bustling Area 7 banking district of Garki, Abuja.<\/p>\n

A leaking sewage line situated between the Vanguard office and a commercial bank has resulted in the discharge of human waste and the spread of a persistent, foul odor.<\/p>\n

The leakage, reportedly caused by the theft of the sewer\u2019s protective enamel cover weeks ago, has significantly disrupted foot traffic and banking activities in the area.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday afternoon, two men claiming to be officials of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), arrived at the scene and allegedly demanded N130,000 before any evacuation of the waste could begin.<\/p>\n

The men claimed the payment was needed to take “personal measures” to clear the sewage, citing prolonged delays in obtaining official clearance or equipment from the AEPB.<\/p>\n

However, when asked to provide a formal request or official documentation for the fee, the men became agitated and threatened to leave the site unless their demand was met.<\/p>\n

Despite being shown proof that Vanguard had paid the statutory refuse disposal fee of N187,050 to the AEPB on May 27, 2025, the men insisted that cleanup would not proceed without the additional payment.<\/p>\n

They dismissed suggestions that waste management fell under their official responsibilities and claimed official intervention could take over a month.<\/p>\n

The incident has raised serious concerns about recurring bribery and exploitation linked to the malfunctioning sewage line, which has been the target of repeated thefts and overflows in recent years.<\/p>\n

In a similar incident, individuals also claiming to be from the AEPB demanded N100,000 from local businesses. That case was reported, and the AEPB eventually intervened and evacuated the waste officially.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear whether the two men involved in the latest incident are genuine AEPB staff or imposters posing as agency personnel.<\/p>\n

The situation has heightened calls for stronger monitoring and enforcement to prevent environmental hazards and alleged extortion in the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Huldah Shado A major environmental hazard is currently threatening residents, workers, and visitors in the bustling Area 7 banking district of Garki, Abuja. A leaking sewage line situated between the Vanguard office and a commercial bank has resulted in the discharge of human waste and the spread of a persistent, foul odor. The leakage, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":67803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67804,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67802\/revisions\/67804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}