By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, on Monday said that Utako Market may be shutdown over safety concerns and poor sanitation to avert epidemic.
Utako Market managed by the Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC, is one of the largest markets located in Utako district.
The Director, Department of Development Control, Mukhtar Galadima and leader of the taskforce, expressed displeasure at the deteriorating sanitation situation in Utako Market.
Galadima said the market has become a ” time bomb and disaster waiting to happen, and as such there is an urgent need to clean up the market and ensure disaster and epidemic were averted.
Galadima lamented that such a market located within the heart of the city could be allowed by its managers to degenerate to a place where both human and environmental safety is compromised.
He noted that proactive measures must be taken, while an urgent meeting would be convened with all stakeholders in the market.
He said that it is worrisome that the market managers have illegally allowed the market to overflow into the major streets around Utako residential areas.
Galadima stated that henceforth, the taskforce would not allow traders occupy the streets again because they had started vandalizing and defacing the road infrastructure.
Also speaking, the Secretary of FCTA’s Command and Control, Peter Olumuji said apart from the nuisances in the area, residents around the neighborhood, have also complained of security threats surging from the market.
Olumuji also disclosed that the market has been overtaken by idle youths and suspected hard drug addicts.
He said that although no suspect has being arrested, the FCDA has taken a proactive step to brief the National Drug Laws Enforcement Agency ,NDLEA, to pay close attention to the market area, as a way of curbing the illicit drug peddling activities.
