By Daniel Tyokua
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has pulled down over 400 illegal houses in Gwarinpa, Abuja.
During the demolition exercise on Thursday, Director, Department of Development Control, Murkhtar Galadima said some houses were illegally converted from corner shops to residential buildings with others covering the water ways.
Galadima, who spoke to journalists after the exercise, lamented the poor hygiene and sanitation in the area, saying waste are being released directly to the stream and which remains time bomb waiting to explode.
According to him, “This places you are seeing are not suppose to be houses, they were actually corner shops but people have converted them to residential abode. We have over 400 shops that were converted to residential buildings.
“We are working with Federal Housing Authority, we had some discussions with them on how to convert it into a modern mall, but for now the thing that is called corner shops is not being used for that particular purpose, it being used as residential buildings. And when you look at the number of people staying here, the hygiene and sanitation is zero, so for safety reasons it is better to remove them.
On the notice of demolition, he said they were given 1 month notice, “We gave them over a month notice, I remember we came here for sensitization and we marked it. When you go round you see the markings on the wall”.
He decried the fact that people built on water ways, “What we are trying to do is to recover the flood plain within Gwarimpa, People built on water ways. The area is not properly planned because they are just discharging their waste directly to the stream. And this could be a source of epidemic, so it is a time bomb waiting to happen. If we don’t take action immediately the consequences is unimaginable.
“Definitely I will advice them not to interfere with water channels and to also tell others that guilty that we are coming for them”.
The senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to the minister of FCT, Ikharo Attah, said he was shocked at the level of illegality in that area, “I am very surprised at the level of illegality here, thanks to Development Control who spotted this illegality here. People decided to build on water ways,constructing on stream making this area Gwarimpa prone to flooding” he said.
