The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) says that the ongoing destruction of illegal buildings in Guzape and other parts of the territory has nothing to do with the people who live there.
On Thursday, at the demolition site in Abuja, Mr. Ikharo Attah, the FCT Minister’s Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection, and Enforcement, gave the clarification in response to questions from reporters.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) says that some of the homes and businesses that were damaged were built on flood plains and marshy land.
Attah explained that the operation’s goal was to get rid of squatters and illegal buildings that had been built on land that had been set aside for a school.
Malam Muhammad Bello, who is the FCT Minister, and all of the people who were born and raised in the nation’s capital, according to the minister’s aide, love and respect the 17 Graded Chiefs very much.
“It is untrue and deceptive for anyone to believe or imply that the Federal Capital Territory’s current efforts to demolish illegitimate buildings in Guzape’s Kpaduma II village and other areas are aimed at the Abuja locals.
The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, has a tremendous love for the Abuja residents, and they are really peaceful people.
“If you saw, the 17 grading FCT Chiefs and the minister are quite tight.” He has many close friends, including the Sapeyi of Garki, the Ona of Abaji, and many more.
So, the FCT Administration’s efforts to get rid of environmental problems and illegal activities in the area are not and have never been aimed at the people of Abuja.
According to Attah, the majority of people impacted by the exercise were those who purchased land from the indigenous people.
That is the irony, in fact. Look at each of these locations; they are not native people’s areas. You would have seen them collected if these were native homes, since they wouldn’t have anywhere else to go.
The community, on the other hand, could be seen from above and was not affected because the people had the right to be moved and paid.
So the locals must be respected and given the opportunity for potential reintegration and relocation depending on what the FCT Administration wants to do, while the minister has instructed us to remove all squatters who purchased land from the natives against the law.
Mr. Kaka Bello, who is in charge of monitoring and enforcement at the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), says that the land was meant to be a school, but some people decided to go against the plan and use the land for illegal business.
If you look around, you will notice a timber shade, industries that make blocks, and locations where bamboo is sold. These are not intended to be illegal commercial operations.
And for that reason, Bello stated, “We are here to get rid of all these illegalities so that the proper site that has been recognized as a school may be in place.”
Mr. Matthew Igba, who lived in one of the buildings that would be torn down, asked the FCTA to make sure the public would be involved in a good way before starting such a project.
He said that the house he and his family were residing in had not been designated for demolition because “we just saw bulldozers coming to demolish our structure.”
Additionally, Mr. James Ibekwe, a vendor of builders’ supplies, stated that “all that has transpired has happened.” We conduct our business and earn our daily money here.
We just saw something like this all of a sudden. Our company locations were gone before we knew what was occurring after the FCT Administration merely provided us with three days’ notice. (NAN)
