By Daniel Tyokua
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has taken steps to close down motor parks without approval by the government.
Officials of the Administration said the initiative was to rid the nation’s capital, Abuja of proliferation of illegal motor parks that pave way for criminal elements.
Director, FCT department of Development Control, Mukhtar Galadima disclosed this after a meeting with managers of the motor parks ahead of full enforcement to start soon.
He also said the action was part of arrangements to clean up the parks and get rid of illegal ones in line with the vision of the Nyesom Wike-FCT Administration.
On his assumption of office, the minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike had decried turning of every available space in Abuja to motor park, thereby promoting insecurity and reducing standards of Abuja.
Galadima said: “We’re trying to see that we sensitize the operators of this illegal motor parks and close them down.
“The exercise is going to be on, so long as they are operating illegally. We want to make sure that the operators of these motor parks comply with the provisions of the Federal Capital Territory’s plan, as well as development guidelines. In order to make the city more aesthetically pleasing and functional.”
The director stated that after sanitizing the parks and their surroundings, relevant agencies of government would be handed over the parks to prevent further abuses.
He suggested that the cleaned up parks would be given to FCT Transportation Secretariat for allocation to competent managers.
On his part, Secretary, Command and Control Unit, department of security service, FCTA, Dr Peter Olumuji, noted that, ” if motor parks were not used for intended purposes, they would turn into areas harbouring criminals who would cause insecurity in the Territory.
He said there will be proper profiling of all those that work in the parks to be able to fish out bad elements.
In his contribution, Deputy Director, Monitoring and Enforcement, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Kaka Bello, disclosed that there were a lot of complaints about lack of motor parks in the FCT.
He berated the situation on misuse of parks provided by the government, which he said the FCT Administration would recover and sanitize all the parks and put them to rightful use.
Chairman, FCT NURTW, Comrade Yusuf Alabi who pledged the support of his union blamed the poor condition of the
parks on wrong managers.
He therefore, appealed to the FCTA to give the motor parks to the right persons who know how to handle parks.
End.
