Demolition Exercise In Kuje Will Not End Soon, Says FCTA

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has said that the ongoing demolition of illegal structures in Kuje Area Council will not end soon, saying that illegalities in the area council have become too alarming to be tolerated by the Administration.

The FCTA, which insisted that all the demolition in the area council followed due processes, called on the area council leadership to set up a multi-agency taskforce to sustain the success achieved through the demolition exercise.

The FCTA made this disclosure during a stakeholders dialogue, organised by the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Monitoring, Inspection, and Enforcement, to get feedback from both political and community leaders in Kuje Area Council.

Speaking on the importance of the ongoing demolition exercise, the Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection, and Enforcement to FCT Minister, Ikharo Attah, said it was disheartening to see that public roads were converted to illegal markets, while government reserved lands were taken over for personal purposes.

Attah further noted that while the FCT Administration has committed a lot of resources to the exercise, the Area Council management needed to put in place a mechanism to prevent unlawful people from jeopardising the huge success that has been recorded.

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He insisted that the indigenous people that have structures within the Kuje railway corridors will get a reprieve, while non-indigenes, who ignored warnings to buy land and build houses there, will not be compensated.

“The illegalities in Kuje Area Council cannot disappear swiftly. Those selling on the road have come to see the road as their property and not a place for all of us. Those who occupied the market parking space see it as a place for them and not for all of us.

“Those who are converting the rail corridor and selling it, see it as their own and not for all of us. Those who have forcefully removed the Area Council from the fruits market and sold it to individuals see the place for them and not for all of us.

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“The FCTA is not coming to take any land from anyone in Kuje, the one FCTA will reclaim is the rail corridor which belongs to everyone.  The land that belongs to the people should be left for the council to develop, for the people,” Attah said.

Earlier, Dan Ayuba, the Director of Administration in Kuje Area Council, confirmed that the council had initiated steps towards setting up a committee that will help to keep the level of sanity achieved.

Ayuba, who also stated that the council chairman and other key officials were supportive of the ongoing exercise, also disclosed that plans had been perfected to relocate all the traders that were affected by the demolition.

Also speaking, the Deputy Director of the Department of Development Control, Isaiah Ukpannah, called on Kuje Area Council management to always collaborate with the Urban and Regional Planning Department, as a measure to curtail illegalities.

He also stated that the Administration will not compensate anybody who refuse to adhere to rules to engage in any illegalities, especially building on unapproved lands.