The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has evicted illegal food vendors, mechanics, fuel hawkers, scavengers, and petty traders on rail and road corridors near the presidential villa in Abuja.
The assistant director, Enforcement, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Mr. Kaka Bello, who led the operation, said the administration has zero tolerance for environmental nuisances in the nation’s capital.
Bello, who advised residents to have a healthy attitude towards the environment, noted that if all residents ensure disciplined and do what was right, Abuja would remain a clean city.
“As you can see this area falls within the Asokoro District and it is bordering the residents of the number one citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“As such this illegality that is happening here will not be allowed to continue. You can see a lot of sundry nuisances from food vendors, illegal petroleum sellers popularly known as black markers, and illegal mechanics occupying this road corridor.
“This has led to the spillover of their illegal activities on the R.B. Dikko Road off Lord Lugard street. This is unacceptable and that is why the Director of AEPB, Mr. Osilama Braimah, gave us a matching order to come and ensure that we sanitise this place,” he said.
Also, the senior special assistant to the FCT Minister on Monitoring, Inspection, and Enforcement, Mr. Ikharo Attah, explained that the place occupied by the illegal vendors and mechanics was a green area given as a temporal food court.
Attah disclosed that the administration would fence the area, adding that those who have a temporal allocation to run a green area, parks, and open spaces would take charge.
“They will do it by the provision of the Parks and Recreation Department that gave them the allocation, and this is what we do to ensure that people manage the rail and the road corridors pending when we have full construction and when the place is fully used for road and rail all these things will disappear.
“But for now we discovered that it is very bad and sad to see fuel black markers, food vendors, scavengers, hawkers, and all manners of people using this place. This does not paint the city in a very good light because it is at the very heart of the city,” Attah said.
