By Sunny Onyekwere, 17 November 2025
Some Abuja residents under the umbrella of the Concerned Citizens of the FCT, have called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to investigate the leadership of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) over alleged massive scheme of embezzlement and criminal misappropriation of public funds within the council, so as take necessary actions against those involved in such menace.
The group particularly accused AMAC’s Signpost Advert Revenue Unit of allegedly siphoning billions of Naira meant for public coffers, leading to an annual revenue loss of approximately N3 billion for the FCT.
At a press briefing at the weekend, the convener of the group, Dr. Joel Dipo, who spoke on behalf of its members, stated that they decided to raise the alarm as concerned citizens following several investigations into the allegations.
Disclosing that they had filed the complaint on behalf of “concerned taxpayers” in the FCT, he alleged that the revenue unit, which acts as a Technical Partner for Revenue Generation, collects money daily from the public for signpost advertisements without remitting the funds to AMAC.
He said: “There is a fraud going on in the FCT perpetrated in the advertising industry.
” The Federal Capital Territory is losing an annual revenue of about N3 billion to miscreants, with whom they have a sharing formula”.
Also, the group highlighted a jurisdictional conflict, pointing to the FCT’s Department of Outdoor Advertisement and Signage (DOAS) as the legally mandated body for revenue collection. Dipo alleged that AMAC is actively undermining DOAS to facilitate the fraud.
“Rather, they are stealing and siphoning money through what is called the first-party advert for their selfish purposes.
“So, what they do is they don’t allow the FCT Department of Outdoor Advertisement and Signage to collect the money and remit it to the FCTA”, he stated.
The group named an official, Mr. Donald Amagbo, and other AMAC officials as key actors in the alleged scheme.
“AMAC is collecting this money. They are sharing it on good authority between Donald and the AMAC officials”, he alleged.
They further claimed that the misappropriated funds, which he estimates could reach over N3 billion annually if properly managed, are being used for personal enrichment instead of community development.
According to him:”They refuse to use it for any developmental work, they don’t construct roads or do anything that would benefit AMAC residents. There is nothing.
“The money that goes to AMAC, they just use it anyhow, using public funds to buy perfumes, cars and clothes, and to do all sorts of things.
“If only the Honorable Minister is just going to look away from land and look into advertisement revenues in the council, he will see how much the FCTA is losing annually on just adverts the Minister has the capacity annually to generate over N5 billionaire from advert.
“From my investigation, AMAC is collecting this money and they are sharing it between Donald and the AMAC officials.
“They refuse to use it for any developmental work roads. The AMAC chairman is simply doing nothing. He has done nothing to better the lot of people living in council.
“The minister needs to understand that he needs to step into this matter as soon as possible. He needs to empower DOAS to collect this money in the interest of residents of the FCT.”
“The council chairman, Hon. Christopher Maikalangu is allowing the fraud to persist, because he is part of it. That was what happened with the street naming fraud until the FCT minister stepped into it and put an end to it.
“They are just generating revenue and sharing it among themselves for personal uses. Imagine giving private individuals the name ‘AMAC’ and making them signatories to the account, without any government functionaries.
“From our investigation, 100 percent of what DOAS generates goes straight to remittal for the government to use to develop the FCT, while 100 percent of what AMAC generates goes straight to private accounts for their personal uses. This is a very serious matter and the minister needs to look into it before it gets out of hand.”
Meanwhile, when contacted for a reaction, Kingsley Madaki, Senior Special Assistant Media and Public Affairs to Executive Chairman of AMAC, who denied the knowledge of such alleged scam, said the Council had concessioned collection of mobile advert revenue to Department of Outdoor Advert and Signage (DOAS) of the FCT Administration, so it doesn’t get directed involved in it again.
He added that AMAC only collects its share of the generated advert revenue from DOAS, that remits an agreed percentage of the periodic revenue collected, as it is within its constitutional right to do so.
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