As the Federal Capital Territory Ministerial Task Team on City Sanitation demolished illegal motor parks and shanties in Zuba, an Abuja suburb, petty traders were visibly enraged and sad.
The team’s officials, led by chairman Comrade Ikharo Attah, stormed the popular Dankogi area on the Zuba-Kaduna expressway in the early hours of Tuesday morning and demolished illegal motor parks where traders operate in makeshift tents, posing a security threat to the people.
While fielding questions from newsmen after the ‘clean up,’ exercise, the chairman said that the structures were removed in accordance with the directives of the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, in order to maintain sanity in the city.
Saying, the exercise was prompted by directives from the Minister of the FCT to reclaim the Zuba inter-change, which had been abused by traders and motorists.
He regretted that the interchange had been taken over by shanties in the name of trade, causing grit and nuisance.
According to him , “The minister is not comfortable with the abuse of the plan of the inter-change which is supposed to be green but is converted into a transport hub that is gradually becoming a shanty and criminals’ den, the area has also become a plantain market.
“We are removing the illegal structures to reclaim Zuba because some criminals are coming to the spot, so the exercise today is multi dimensional, one is to reclaim the Zuba inter-change, two is to remove shanties where criminals hide, three is to free traffic coming from Kubwa-Dei-Dei axis that connect Zuba and Zuma rock axis on Abuja-Kaduna express way.
“There is a market for the traders, so they should move in, not selling on the road, they feel to sale on the road because it provides quick market for them, we are discouraging that by appealing to them to relocate and leave the road inter-change, or corridor” he said.
Speaking on sustaining the exercise, Hassan Ogbole of the Department of Development Control, said after the clean up, the Department of Parks and Recreation is expected to take over the area for proper management.
“We have done our part it is left for the Department of Parks and Recreation to take over the management of the area, is either they come in as a department, or hand it over to a contractor that will manage it”
