By Stanley Onyekwere
Further to efforts toward tackling violations and infringement of the Abuja Master Plan, the FCT Minister, Malam, Muhammad Musa Bello has flagged off massive end of the year demolition exercise.
He reiterated the commitment of the FCT administration determination to demolish all illegal structures, contravening the Abuja Master Plan.
Bello, who performed the exercise through the Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Shehu Hadi Ahmad, while addressing security personnel drawn from various military and paramilitary agencies, said they are going all out to mitigate all illegal structures and encroachment in the nation’s capital.
“There are a lot of cases of violations and infringement of the Master Plan. All we are doing is to ensure that Abuja is sanitised, people cannot continue illegally with impunity. Wherever, we identify as illegal settlement, we are bringing them down.
“The Directors of concerned departments in FCTA are mandated to come and meet you and identify with your course which is to sanitize the city to be the delight of the new capital city we desire which was the dreams of our forefathers.
“With the number of security men we have on ground now, shows our readiness and we should try as much as possible to obey the rules of engagement guiding the operation”, he said.
Similarly, the FCTA Director of Security Services, Mr Adamu Gwary, enjoined the security officers to be guided by the rules of engagement during the operation, we are expecting that at the end of the day we will have a sanitized city.
He however, hinted that there would be pockets of resistances during the enforcement exercise, we don’t need to tell you about your roles in this kind of situation. There should be a lot of arrest .
Gwary said there are people who are feeding on this kind of illegal activities. “ Your commanders has been all briefed before this address, we expect nothing but the best of this outing . We are professionals in our areas of endeavour “.
On his part, the Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring Inspection and Enforcement to the FCT Minister, Comrade Ikharo Attah said: “what we are doing is what all of us will benefit from. Demolition and illegalities have gone beyond the function of Town planners,
“Demolition is purely issue of security. When you clear the shanties remove illegalities and follow what the town planning has set for you then you can go and sleep with your two eyes close . It will make our jobs a lot easier because the criminals will not have a place to hide.
