From Fred Itua, Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), on Wednesday, vowed to clear all criminal hideouts and illegal structures in the nation’s capital.
Addressing reporters after removing shanties and illegal structures at Jahi District, the FCTA Director of the Department of Development Control, Muktar Galadima said the right thing would be done.
Galadima led the combined tasks team of security personnel from the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, Directorate of Road Traffic Services, popularly known as VIO, among many others.
He said: “The exercise is a continuation of the city cleaning and sanitation program of the present FCT administration’s policy on city sanitation.
“To a large extent, what we are doing now is enhancing the security architecture of the Federal Capital Territory and enhancing the architectural quality of the Federal Capital City, because we are removing shanties. So to a large extent, this is improving greatly the livability of Abuja as a Federal Capital City.
“The place that we are operating today is a proposed corridor of arterial N 2 road. It is a road that starts all the way from Nnamdi Azikiwe Ring Road up to ring road 2. So it is a proposed arterial corridor.
“We are going to consult among the relevant stakeholders, to know the use that we are going to put before the main road comes into operation.
“There are a lot of places that we’ve gone around to sensitize the settlers, and then also to prepare our strategies against the occurrence of this kind of shanties.”
He, however, advised occupants of these places and shanties to pack their valuables and also the residents of FCT, have to support us in this operation by a way of reporting some of these types of settlements to the authority.
Meanwhile, the FCTA Secretary of Command and Control Unit, Department of Security Services, Mr Peter Olumuji said: “There are a lot of vices that are associated with this particular location. In fact, during our removal today we recovered a strangler, an equipment which these One-chance operators use to strangulate their victims in the vehicle and those on top motorcycles in the night.
“Once they use this to strangle a person, there’s no way the person will survive and if he/she survives, any item he/she is holding will definitely be dropped. The implication on security is that this will curb the insecurity level within this environment, which is between Gwarimpa and Mabushi.
“We also realised that even during this process of removal, they started to rob themselves. So if they can do that to themselves, then you can imagine what they would do to innocent passersby within this place and those residing here.
“And part of what we are doing is this clearance operation which has to do with removing illegal structures and shanties that harbours them.
“The cashew plantation is another cause of concern, which we have also removed here because most of the time, these people hide under the cashew plantation. It is like a natural cover that will prevent people from knowing what is happening there but we have been working and have already started removing the cashew plantations that have given them safe haven.”