AMAC decries interference, reasserts constitutional mandate over local revenue, public health oversight

The Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) has decried misleading statements credited to the FCT Public Health Department and the FCT Administration (FCTA) with regards to the collection of levies and the regulation of business premises within the Council.

In a statement on Monday, January 5, 2026, signed by Kingsley Madaki, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Public Affairs to the Executive Chairman, AMAC, Hon. Christopher Zakka Maikalangu, the council reminded the FCTA and the general public that the FCT Public Health Department is a service-oriented administrative body, not a revenue-generating agency.

The statement read: “The Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) is compelled to issue this urgent clarification in response to recent misleading statements credited to the FCT Public Health Department and the FCT Administration (FCTA). These statements concern the collection of levies and the regulation of business premises within the Council.

“The leadership of AMAC views the recent stakeholders’ meeting organized by the FCTA not as a collaborative effort, but as a direct attempt to undermine the constitutional functions of the Third Tier of Government.

“It is essential to remind the FCTA and the general public that the FCT Public Health Department is a service-oriented administrative body, not a revenue-generating agency. Under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), specifically the Fourth Schedule, the functions of a Local Government/Area Council are clearly defined and protected.

“These exclusive functions include: Provision and maintenance of health services, control and regulation of shops, kiosks, restaurants, bakeries, and other places where food is sold to the public, regulation of slaughterhouses and markets, assessment of privately owned houses/tenements.

“The Constitution is supreme; any administrative regulation or law that conflicts with these specific provisions is unconstitutional, null, and void.

“The FCTA Public Health Department has relied on a High Court judgment in Suit No. CV/1642/2024 (Devyani International Nig. Limited v. Abuja Municipal Area Council) to label AMAC’s operations as “illegal.” AMAC wishes to clarify the status of this litigation.

“The judgment in question relied heavily on a previous default judgment (Dunes Investment and Global Service v. Abuja Municipal Area Council), which has since been set aside. Consequently, AMAC has appealed the Devyani judgment on the grounds that the trial court did not consider the constitutional provisions or the fact that the precedent (Dunes) was voided.

“An order for a Stay of Execution has been filed. Therefore, AMAC maintains that the matter is sub judice, and the FCTA has no legal standing to unilaterally declare the Council’s activities illegal pending the outcome of the appeal.

“There is a clear distinction between Revenue and Service. The FCT Public Health Department’s role is policy formulation and clinical oversight. It has no constitutional backing to compete for revenue with a democratically elected local administration.

“By attempting to commercialize health inspections and sideline the Area Council, the FCTA is encouraging “institutional conflict” that starves the grassroots of funds needed for critical development, including rural electrification, primary healthcare, local road construction and maintenance.

“The Executive Chairman of AMAC, Hon. Christopher Zakka Maikalangu, urges business owners to remain law-abiding but mindful of their statutory obligations to the Council.

“We are committed to an ‘Ease of Doing Business’ environment, but we will not stand by while the constitutional powers of the Third Tier of Government are eroded by agencies that lack the legal mandate to collect such levies.

“We call on the Honorable FCT Minister to intervene and ensure that the FCTA Public Health Department focuses on its primary mandate of clinical excellence rather than interfering in the revenue structures of the Abuja Municipal Area Council.

“AMAC remains confident in the judicial process and asserts that its right to generate Internal Revenue (IGR) cannot be extinguished by administrative fiat.”

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