TheCable

The Federal Capital Territory Administration has announced plans to commence demolition of illegal structures in Mpape community, Abuja, in the coming days.

The administration made this announcement on Tuesday, days after the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) called on Muhammed Bello, the Minister of the FCT to suspend all ongoing demolition exercises within the territory.

Dalhatu Ezekiel, the FCT PCC Commissioner, said the commission had received a petition from the coalition of FCT indigenous associations on alleged indiscriminate demolition by the FCT Administration.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, Ikharo Attah, the chairman of the ministerial committee on city sanitation said stopping the demolition of illegal structures will turn Abuja into a ‘slum’.

He said the landlords of the area had written to the minister demanding that the demolition exercise be carried out because the community is no longer passable.

“We should be entering Mpape in the next two weeks. The beauty of this is that the landlords and tenants in the area wrote to the Minister demanding for this,” Attah said.

“The entire stretch of the road leading to the community is not passable and takes like an hour to get to town. It should not take more than six to seven minutes.

“We had earlier issued notices for them to leave. The airport road is taking our time, we should be done in the next two weeks, thereafter all attention would now be on Mpape.

“We may likely be coming with six heavy machines. If you stop demolition in the city, you have killed Abuja.”

Speaking on the demolition exercise being carried out in Iddo, Attah added that no indigenous house was touched as most of the illegal structures being demolished were built during the COVID-19 lockdown.

TheCable had earlier reported the frustration expressed by residents of Ushafa community over FCTA’s planned demolition of their houses close to the Usman dam.