By Ben Adoga, Abuja
Barely few weeks after elections the FCT Administration has resumed it’s suspended demolition and removal of illegal settlements.
The early hours of Monday witnessed a massive demolition in the Area 1, Garki area of the FCT around the Old Secretariats where slum settlements have sprung up in the heart of the city centre.
Apart from the normal removal of illegal squatter elements, Monday’s demolitions was necessitated by the wave of insecurity which threatened the peace of the Abuja Old Secretariat area.
Executive Secretary, Federal Capital Territory Development Authority, FCDA, Engr. Shehu Ahmed Hadi who declined to comment on why the exercise was suspended during elections said the operation was to ensure security around the Old Secretariat, which still houses critical Federal Ministries and Agencies.
Hadi decried the rate of criminality that took over the large expanse of the land, behind the Old Secretariat, originally designed to be road and train transit corridors.
Senior Special Assistant to FCT Minister on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement, Ikharo Attah said the operation was long overdue and that notices were given long enough for the illegal occupants to evacuate the settlement to no avail.
Attah noted that security reports showed that the removed illegal structures constituted threats to the Old Federal Secretariat where several Ministries are still being accommodated.
He warned that the exercise would continue throughout the week and assured that the taskforce will continue to respect human rights in all its operations.
However, hopelessness and helplessness was seen as the victims scamper to save some of their property.
A lady who simple called herself Alice lamented that in spite of the cashless policy of government that has made life very difficult for Nigerians, especially the poor, the FCT Administration had no human sympathy but has forced them into destitution.
She, however, agreed that notices were served on them, but that they couldn’t believe that with the prevailing hardship government would make good it’s threat.
One Danjuma Yakubu threw his hands in the air and wailed, “I am finished, I am finished; every thing that I have is gone.”
It was gathered that Yakubu who is a petty trader lives in a one room make shift apartment where he sells his wares. He was not able to save any of his wares.
