By Ben Adoga
In continuation of measures to curb insecurity in the FCT as well as clean up the city, the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, Wednesday mobilised bulldozers into high brow Three Arms Zone and demolished shanties and other criminal hideouts close to the National Assembly, Abuja.

The Three Arms Zone is the exclusive reserve of the three Arms of government, the presidency, the legislature and the judiciary. The green areas and other forests that have sprung up have since been occupied by illegal squatters and criminal elements who build shanties in the thick of the forests.

The FCTA demolition team which defy the early morning downpour moved in heavy-duty machines as early as 6:00 am and took the people by surprise.

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The makeshift structures which were used as shops, houses, drinking joints and business centres were all pulled down.

Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to FCT Minister, Ikharo Attah, in a chat with some journalists during the demolition explained that in order to make the Three alArms Zone safe and improve the aesthetics of the area the Administration had to remove all the shanties and other illegal structures.

According to the SSA, “We came to remove shanties and illegal containers around the National Assembly within the Three Arms Zone because it is not good Al all for criminal elements to hibernate there, deface the area and constitute a security threat to lawmakers, the presidency and very senior members of the judiciary.

“We can’t have all these sensitive offices here and have all these people here, some of the houses people are living here were used for construction sites in the 80s and it has been decommissioned a long time ago and everyone should go.”

He said about 100 shanties were removed in the exercise and that there was no going back on the removal of all illegal shanties and structures in Abuja.

Director, Development Control, Muktar Galadima, said the Administration making arrangements to have a good design that would fit into the existing environment.

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He said, “We gave them time to pack their things, so we are here to remove the shanties. Looking at the composition of this area, that is Three Arms Zone, the presence of these structures is not a good image for the country and we want to come up with a good design that would fit into the existing environment.

One if the victims, Mrs Gift Akpan, a food vendor, said they all knew from the beginning that the place was illegal and they knew that one day, they would be asked to leave.

She, however, lamented the destruction of some of their items and that naturally, they feel the pain as it was difficult to remove all important items before the demolition.

While the criminal elements took to their heels on sighting the FCTA team, other residents were left helpless and stranded after the demolition.