By Daniel Tyokua
The FCT Administration has issued a week notice to hundreds of squatters suspected to be hoodlums taking refuge under bridges in Garki, Wuse II, Maitama and Wuse Districts of Abuja, to immediately leave or face the wrath of the law.
The administration said some of the affected places are supposed to be green spots but have been turned into slums and were nefarious activities take place in the city.
Dr Fred Kpakol, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Environmental and Waste Management to the FCT Minister, decried that most bridges have become eyesore, where people are burning with firewood, which will affect their lifespan and eventually bring about the collapse of the bridges.
Kpakol spoke yesterday when he led officials of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), to sensitise the squatters on the looming health and security threats, as they are prone to diseases and death within such places and its environs.
He warned those staying under bridges in different parts of the city to leave as it is going to carry out operation storm under the bridges and clear every miscreants and people who are not supposed to be there, at the expiration of the notice.
He said: “The full arm of the law will be invoked, that is why we have given them one week to be out of these places, because we are going to be moving from place to place, and make sure that things are put in the right where they are supposed to be.
“You are aware of the prevailing kidnappings and other atrocities people commit from different places and run under the bridges, taking refuge under the slums there, which is unacceptable.
“The government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is out to give the people a renewed-hope, through the instrumentalities in the hands of the FCT Minister, Barrister Nyesom Wike, who is prepared to make the city clean, and for this city to be clean, slums like this has to be taking care of.
“Because the security of this city is very important as the face of Nigeria, and we cannot deface the country, we want to warn on a very strong note that any human being that come here to stay must have to leave.
“If you have the capacity or potentials to do something in the city, then you take up what is right for you to do, and stay, not just to come and look at anywhere to stay, and become a nuisance to the society. It is totally unacceptable, and we have given them one week, within which we will come and evacuate them from these places.”
On the decision to sensitise the squatters before dislodging them, the Minister’s Aide: “This government has a human face, that is why we want to appeal to them, by speaking to their conscience that there is no need to lose hope or feel that if they don’t have anything to do, then they stay under bridges. This is a suicidal mission, as there could be an outbreak of epidemic that could consume all of them.
