The bulldozers did not come out on account of estates and structures built on flood plains, but nonetheless,they left in their trail sorrows and tears.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has demolished illegal structures in Gishiri village, Katampe District of the Federal Capital City to forestall any possible security breach in Abuja.
The Administration has. therefore, called on owners of plots of land in the affected Gishiri community to hurry up and reclaim possession of their property.
Accordingly, the Administration is determined to bring sanity to the area, in its resolve to finish up demolition of illegal structures sitting on people’s plots in the area posing a threat to security wellbeing of the city.
The officials of FCTA Department of Development Control, accompanied by joint security personnel, stormed the area with two bulldozers on Monday, pulling down more than one hundred illegal structures.
District officer overseeing Katampe and Mabushi Districts, Samson Atureta, explained that the demolition exercise has been sustained to ensure there was no return to the areas cleared.
His words: “There are so many illegal developments and the village extensions harboring criminals, that’s why we had to clear them, because these extensions are even on peoples legally allocated plots.
“So, what we are doing here is to ensure that all those developments that are village extensions are removed in order to dislodge men of questionable characters. We are, however, careful not to tamper with the houses where indigenes or natives are living in,” he stressed.
One of the affected persons, Mama Blessing, who runs a drinking joint in the area, laments: “Even though we know that they will come and do something like this, at least they would have given us enough time to leave and relocate to another place.”
While some affected persons decried that they renewed their rents barely one week ago, others lamented that their landlords were forcing them to pay their rent before their residences were pulled down.
Meanwhile, owners of plots in areas earlier demolished have started taking possession of their property as perimeter fences were seen erected in compliance with earlier calls for them to do so.
▪︎ Additional by Wisdom Acka (Abuja Digest)