In continuation with its renewed clean-up exercise and ensuring security of lives and property in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the FCT administration’s ministerial task team has continued to raid and remove thousands of squatters from illegal settlements in Abuja.
The latest demolition was the removal of hundreds of squatters from settlements in the green area at Wuse Zone 3, in the heart of the capital city, while their shanties were completely demolished.
It was observed that the enforcement team, accompanied by joint security personnel drawn from military and paramilitary agencies, always raid and clear the settlement areas in the territory.
According to displaced persons at the Wuse Zone 3, their farms mainly banana and plantain plantations, as well as other cash crops are around the flood plains stretching up to Presidential Villa and Karon-Majiji area.
One of the squatters, Sani Halilu, who claimed that it was the first time he experienced such demolition, said it touched his life to the extent that he was lost for words to express what happened to their settlement.
He added that most of them are farmers who have been there for more than 30 years, and some of them are students, they farm and also engage in trading activities to help fend for themselves and their families.
“For me, I have been hearing about demolitions of our settlements in the past, but this is the first time I experienced it, and it touched my life to the extent that I’m lost for words to express what happened.
“Normally, we settle in a place, whenever development meets us, we move elsewhere. But this is the place we have been for a long time. We are just settling here, as we were not offered this place by the government, but we are just living and hustling here for more than 30 years,” he stressed.
The senior special assistant to the FCT Minister on Monitoring, Inspection, and Enforcement, Comrade Ikharo Attah, said it was unacceptable to have such a notorious settlement along the river belt in the heart of the city, where criminal acts are traced to the shanties.
Attah revealed that there have been complaints about bags and phones being snatched. There was also the problem of drug trafficking along the corridor stretching up to the Central Mosque Area through the Federal Secretariat area.
“We have been here before, this is a notorious settlement along the river belt. To our shock, it is far wider than what we expected as we spent the whole day here.
“We had to remove everything, all of the illegal shanties. We hope that the crime rate, the rate at which criminals come from under bridges and attack people, stealing from them will be reduced across the FCT,” he said.
