By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
In a midnight clean up operation officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, demolished two main markets and three roadside selling points around the Airport Road as part of the greening exercise of the territory.
The team comprising personnel of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), and security personnel attached to their Area 3 Enforcement unit carried out a total clean up as they cleared all wooden tables, Benches and other items belonging to the traders.
Seniors Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement, Ikaro Attach said that the exercise lasted from 11pm Wednesday night to 4.25am Thursday morning along the airport road.
According to Attah the operation was in line with a directive of the FCT Minister that the cleaning of the Airport Road is a continuous exercise to recover the gateway to the City.
He added that the affected traders had removed their goods and taken them to somewhere else for safe-keeping, before the visit of the team, hence it was only the wooden benches, tables and umbrellas left behind that were cleared.
He said, “We commenced the operation from about 12 am till about 4:30 am, and we have been able to freely removed all the wooden benches, tables, umbrellas and everything there. We cleared them all, and because they are so massive, we can’t pack them, and we had to set all of them ablaze, as part our plan to clean up the Airport Road corridor.”
“If we try to do this during the daytime, we observed that people would gather in their thousands watching; and passers-by will slow down and be watching us , but today we didn’t see such, because of the time when we stormed the place.”
” I believe that we are getting the result, and so far we were able to remove two main markets and three strategic roadside selling points. It was so disturbing and painting our city in bad light, that’s why the FCT Minister gave us the mandate to check the menace, and we have been doing that.”
“We had come here today, to demystify and actually sack most of the night markets and roadside trading. so long as we continue working I don’t think that they can come back, as on a daily basis, we have our pin-down there, and from time to time, a joint cleaning team will make sure that these activities will not continue.”
“And going forward, even after the greening exercise, the Airport Road will be constantly be kept clean as it is the gateway to our city.”
Deputy Director of AEPB, Kaka Bello, who was on ground noted that it’s just part of our routine exercise, as part of our effort at cleaning the Airport Road, and ensuring that all environmental nuisance are removed.
Kaka lamented that some traders were using makeshift structures and lot of shanties, which hitherto butdefaced the place were removed. “As you are aware, the Airport Road is the gateway into and out of nation’s capital city.”
