Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has vowed not to stop the demolition of illegal structures and shanties in Abuja to sanitise the capital city.
The director of the Department of Development Control, Muktar Galadima made the vow yesterday during operations aimed at sanitising and removing shanties all over the city.
The FCTA also held sensitisation meetings with some of the residents on Abuja Master Plan abuses and prepared their minds ahead of impending demolition exercises.
“Part of our strategy to get more compliance was to intensify citizen engagement. There is a need to tell the people why we are doing what we are doing so that they will not see it in a bad light.
“You can see that the people were happy for giving them the chance to say their minds and their side of the story. We needed to carry them along. When they fail to cooperate, we show high-handedness. We have given them time to remove their valuables,” he said.
Galadima revealed that his department would propose to the FCT minister and if approved, the FCTA may begin to arrest culprits of the Abuja Master plan abuses because their activities were posing serious problems in terms of city management, security, and health challenges.
He said his department was dedicating one week to removing shanties at the corridor of Arterial Road M12, behind Kado Naval estate. “We will remove those speculative trees because they are giving cover to people of the underworld,” he added.
The secretary of the Command and Control Unit, FCTA Department of Security Service, Peter Olumuje revealed that seizures of different hard drugs were made, and two persons were arrested over allegations of drug offences.
