FCTA vows to remove crime-infested structures inside Apo cashew plantation

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) via its Department of Development Control removed make-shift structures on major road corridors and inside the cashew plantation within Apo Resettlement, in Abuja.

FCTA city management officials, accompanied by security personnel at the weekend, stormed the place with its bulldozers and dislodged hundreds of artisans, food vendors and petty traders, for allegedly operating in structures that encroached on road corridors, and thereby constituting a public nuisance in the area.

It was observed that most of the illegal structures demolished along the road corridor and cashew plantation near Urban Shelter and Angwan Tiv, respectively, were marked for removal far back as 2021.

Director, Department of Development Control, Murktar Usman Galadima, told newsmen that the weekly exercise, targeted at clearing shanties and other structures constituting infractions in the city, followed the due process for the demolition activity.

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Galadima, who described it as greatly disturbing and major infractions, said the conversion of cashew plantations into trading and living places, as they serve as safe haven for criminality in the city, disclosed plans to start removing them.

He said: “As part of our process for demolition, we have to issue notices, which could be by way of marking and written notices.

“So, we are on our weekly clean-up exercise targeting at clearing shanties and other illegal structures in the city.

“The cashew plantation in Apo resettlement is overtaken by activities of some persons offering catering services, but from credible intelligence, what is happening is beyond eatery, as after sometimes it goes into criminality.

“The general warning is that even the cashew plantations, we will go about removing them because they are now giving those into criminality a safe haven for them to operate. So, we are going to start removing the cashew plantation in the area and other places,” he explained.

To ensure that the shanties don’t return to the same area, the director said: “We are having new strategies now to make sure that any person trying to go contrary to our regulations, will be prosecuted accordingly. This is unlike before when we will just demolish and go.

“Residents should see us as partners, so they should always notice and report some of these infractions to us, to enable us act swiftly. This will also help to save the city from security challenges,” he stated.