The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Thursday demolished worship centres, business stores, shanties, and other unlawful constructions built on traffic corridors in Abuja’s densely populated Mpape Community .
This, according to Comrade Ikharo Attah, Chairman, FCT Ministerial Taskforce on City Sanitation, said is in continuation of the on going clean up exercise aimed to halt the distortion of the Abuja Master plan, saying, the operation will persist for the next three weeks.
Most of the affected worship centers, he claimed, had extended their structures and fences to the road shoulders.
Attah said the activities was part of the FCT Administration’s attempts to free the nation’s capital of environmental nuisances as well as a strategy to reduce criminality in the territory.
He promised that during the process, the administration would leave no stone untouched.
According to him ; ” The major illegalities identified here are worship centres, business shops, shanties, and other illegal structures build on road corridors which makes Mpape Community looks very offensive due to nuisance.
” The demolition of such environmental nuisance started on Wednesday which we are able to clear a number of shanties and containers on roadside and across and deep inside the Mpape Market.
” Similarly, today we carried out major operation and cleared illegal structures and others that were extended to the road shoulders and we shifted them back.
” We also shifted part of the market back and we are able to do what we did here today, knowing that the exercise will last for three weeks,” Attah said.
Attah stated that all the plots that would be reclaim at the end of the exercise would be handle by the relavant departments of the administration.
” The ones that are concern by actually road expansion, the department will be doing their job and one concern with the greening will be carried out by relavant departments.
” Ours as enforcement officers is to clear the road, remove all the incumbrances, illegalities and once our job is done we are satisfy that we have done our part.”
Similarly , Mr Peter Olumuji, Secretary, FCTA, Command and Control Centre noted that, ” in crime triangle there is one of the portion that talks about opportunities.
” And here the opportunities that we noticed is the people started developing unplanned settlement and shanties which breed criminality.
” So removing all this shanties is removing the opportunity for criminals to hibernate and commit crime,” he said.
Meanwhile , Mr Vincent Victor, a landlord and shop owner at Mpape, opined that none of the occupants of the demolition illegal structures have approved from FCTA to erect buildings or shanties.
Victor, however, appealed to the FCTA to provide them with alternative location to enable them continue their business.
