Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has commenced a demolition exercise at Durumi III community in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), demolishing several illegal structures in the community.
The community had been one area where attempts by the Taskforce team to enforce sanitation and other Urban and Regional Planning laws, have always been strongly resisted in the past, and the FCTA’s decision to revisit the community was to clear all shanties and places where suspected criminals take refuge.
The team also demolished a notorious illegal market, popularly known as ” Kasuwa-ndere”, located in the Asokoro district for allegedly harbouring suspected criminals that threaten the peace of residents within the neighbourhood.
The senior special assistant on monitoring, inspection and enforcement to the FCT minister, Comrade Ikharo Attah, who led the team, stated that the operations were part of the ongoing fight against insecurity in the city.
He said that while the Durumi community was overdue for thorough sanitation, the Asokoro illegal market was too notorious to be left in a highbrow district.
According to him, the FCT administration remains committed to its resolve to spare houses belonging to indigenous people, those who defiantly patronize illegal lands will be made to pay heavily for such negligence.
“We removed some shanties and illegal structures around Durumi ¡¡¡ to free the area of criminal activities. The chiefs have made some appeals that they will work with us to remove the illegal structures and we are considering that.
“We want to have a clean FCT. We trust the chiefs to abide by what we have agreed on. We will continue to engage them and other area council officials. We have tried as much as possible to avoid touching houses belonging to indigenous people because they have the right to be compensated and resettled.”
