Mpape planned demolition long overdue, FCTA insists

• …warns artisans, traders to vacate roadside

By Stanley Onyekwere

In wake of the looming demolition of illegal structures in Mpape, one of the densely populated unplanned settlements in Abuja, authorities of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), have insisted that the planned removal exercise was long overdue.

In particular, the FCTA asked traders and artisans operating on roadside in Mpape community to quit.

Making this assertion, the Chairman, FCT Ministerial Taskforce on City Sanitation, Comrade Ikharo Attah an interactive session with newsmen, at the weekend, expressed concerns that most would-be affected traders are yet leave.

Attach said: “What one sees in Mpape is painful; they have months to pack and remove their shops and containers from the days Mpape Landlords Association came to plead with the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello.

“ We also issued additional two weeks quit notice to enable traders evacuate from the roadside. All these appeared to be falling on deaf ears.

“ In most areas like market stretch,  Bedger Quarry and Katampe Junction over 99 per cent of illegal structures to be cleared are still where they are.

“We know the pain and tears of demolition and that is why we are pleading with them to leave the roadside before the expiration of the quit notice”.

Furthermore, the chairman explained that FCTA had severally enjoined Mpape traders to go off the roadside, shift their containers and illegal shops backward a little but they refused.

According to him, Mpape was a gateway to and from Abuja’s main resettlement Community at Shere And Galuwi, hence the need for the road to be cleared of encumbrances.

He added that along the market stretch, structures within 25 metres from the road shoulders must be removed on both sides.

“ We observed that sadly most people have extended shops and structures multiple times to a point where they now sit on the road shoulders.

“ Therefore, the planned demolition in Mpape is long over due,  and even the landlords, residents and motorists are daily begging us to come, because the traffic gridlock and insecurity is too much for them to shoulder”, he stressed.

Meanwhile, the Chairman declined to comment on the exact day and time the taskforce and its bulldozers would roll into Mpape community.