The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Joint Taskforce on City Sanitation stormed and cleared artisans and traders involved in trading and other activities under high power tension around Katampe Extension in Abuja.
Those displaced were suspected criminal elements allegedly using several illegal structures erected by the now dislodged invaders of the reserved green zone and FCT water supply facility as a safe haven for their nefarious activity, thereby leading to increased security threats to lives and property in the area.
Leading the task force on Monday, the Director of the FCT Development Control Department, Murkhtar Galadima, described the invasion of the place by traders and others as pathetic, as it is a high-tension line where any kind of activity was not supposed to be going on around.
Galadima, who doubles as the Coordinator of the task force, revealed that it is the fourth time that task team members are clearing the place, as whenever they remove, the invaders come back.
Represented by Deputy Director, Monitoring and Enforcement, Development Control Department, Hassan Ogbole, the Coordinator noted that the exercise builds up the ongoing city cleanup that had commenced under this current administration.
According to him, “We have done this in several locations, and we are here in Katampe Extension. Whenever we remove them, they come back. So, what you are seeing is the conclusion of the cleanup exercise.
“We will keep doing this, as we can’t leave an ungoverned space, and we are working on governance now in partnership with the Residents’ Association of Katampe Extension and FCT Parks and Recreation Department.
“Sooner or later, we will get them to properly occupy this place so that these people will not return.”
Also speaking, Assistant Director in charge of Maintenance, Parks and Recreational Department, Engr. Isa Abdulmalik said the department fenced the place as there are plans to put in recreational activities, which will be between the government and the residents to serve as a neighbourhood park.
He added that so many other places within the city have been recovered, and parks were created.
“Some of these areas are Kabusa, Gaduwa, Guzape, Apo Dutse, and others. With this, I think we will curb most of the illegal activities and the taking over of this place by hoodlums in the past. So I believe when we do the Katampe neighbourhood, the people around will enjoy the facility.
“We are also working towards making sure that the places are made conducive for the neighbourhood to live,” he stressed.
Not left out, Secretary of FCTA Command and Control Centre, Dr Peter Olumuji, explained that most residents of Katampe extension had complained that they cannot freely traverse the place at night because of the presence of criminal elements around the place that always attack them.
Olumuji noted that there are incidents of stabbing in the nighttime because they want to collect the victims’ phones or any other belongings.
He said, “We’ve seen incidents of people coming here to sell drugs and the rest and a lot of other vices that go on around here.
“But, now that we’ve come around here for a clearance operation, our own is just to ensure that this place is clear of these places that they can hibernate in perpetrating their dangerous activities to human habitation within this environment.”
In a related development, the FCTA, through the Abuja Investment Company Limited (AICL), has commenced beautifying and reorganising the demolished sites of the city’s informal activities.
To this end, Galadima’s led-joint city management task team that has been working with relevant security agencies such as the Nigerian police, NSCDC, the NDLEA, the DSS, the Immigration Service, the correctional service, and fire service visited the new facility at Area 1 Shopping Centre built for sellers of Kilishi (a Hausa name for dried Nigerian beef jerky).
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then