Humanitarian Ministry lauds FCTA for demolition of structures on flood plains

By Stanley Onyekwere

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development,  Sadiya Umar Farouq has lauded the FCT Minister,  Malam Muhammad Musa Bello for swift precautionary measures taken to mitigate flooding and its effect in Abuja. 

Farouq, who spoke at a briefing on the effect of flooding in some of the states of the federation, noted that it takes collective effort to mitigate this menace.

According to her: “What the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory is doing is commendable , last year we had unprecedented flooding in Abuja within the FCT but this year it is not there because of the measures he took to demolish all structures that were built on water channels. Today FCT is said to be flood free compare to what happen last year. 

“Warnings were issued, we reached out to respective government even citizens have roles to play. 

“Instance where people want to build on flood plains, most of the flood was not due to the release of the Cameron Dam that we are talking about that has not been decided yet, we are experiencing this kind of flood because of structures built on water ways.

“People should also leave up to their responsibilities, citizens government and other critical stakeholders if we collectively take responsibility, flooding will be reduced to the Barest minimum”.

Reacting to the development, the Senior Special Assistance on Monitoring Inspection and Evaluation to the FCT Minister, Comrade Ikharo Attah noted that, the Minister stated the obvious, “ if you look at this year, the FCT Minister was extremely proactive in mitigating flood and flood disasters in Abuja. 

“From the onset, if you observed, we have negative indicator that we are going to have massive flooding this year. From that point, the Minister ensure that every related Department and Agencies are put on their toes. 

“The Minister set up a high powered committee headed by the Permanent Secretary, Mr Olusade Adesola and the Executive Secretary of Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) Engr Ahmed Hadi. 

“Other relevant department and agencies such as AMMC, FEMA, Development Control, my office and Abuja Environmental Protection Board(AEPB) that we should go all out to ensure that the issue of flooding is not recorded in the city anywhere. 

“The Minister said there shouldn’t be any illegal structures obstructing the waters ways, therefore he gave a matching order that such structures should be removed.

“Some Flood prone areas heavily hit by demolition includes, Trademore estate and others along Airport Road,  Gwarimpa Housing Estate and Dutse Makaranta community among others were demolished and today, we did not have any record of such. 

“Whenever it rained in the city , every member of the committee are put on their toes to monitor any possible likely areas of flooding.

“Bigger credit must go to the FCT Minister,because from the onset, no one members of the committee rested , when there is large amount of water somewhere the Minister will go their himself and insist all committee members to do their jobs.

“When it rains heavily, and there was flooding, we are also at peace because we took the very painful decision and steps to remove all illegal structures which are paying off today.

“And we are getting  commendation from fellow Minister believing that the FCT Minister took the right decision”, he stressed.

Recall that the annual fatal flooding at Lokogoma District city did not occur this year, despite massive downpour.