By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, on Thursday began demolition of over 400 illegal houses in Gwarimpa, Abuja.
The illegal houses were converted from corner shops to residential buildings most of which were covering the water way, were removed by the term of Development Control and FCT Task Force.
Director, Development Control Department, Murkhar Galadima who spoke to newsmen at the scene of demolition lamented the poor hygiene and sanitation said that waste are being released directly to the stream and this is a time bomb waiting to explode.
Galadima said, “This buildings you are seeing were not suppose to be houses, they were actually corner shops but people have converted them to residential abode. We have over 400 shops that were converted to residential buildings.”
“We are working with Federal Housing Authority, after we had some discussions with them on how to convert it into a modern mall but for now the thing that is called corner shops is not being used for that particular purpose, it being used as residential buildings.” “And when you look at the number of people staying here, their hygiene and sanitation is zero so for safety reasons it is better to remove them.”
Galadima who spoke on the notice of demolition exercise Director speaking on notice of demolition, said the illegal occupants were given one month notice before today’s exercise.
“We gave them over a month notice, I remember we came here for sensitization and we marked it. When you go round you see the markings on the wall.”
He condemned the fact that people built on water ways.
“What we are trying to do is to recover the flood plain within Gwarinpa, People built on water way. The area is not properly planned because they are just discharging their waste directly to the stream. And this could be a source of epidemic, a time bomb waiting to happen.”
“If we don’t take action immediately the consequences will be unimaginable.”
“I advice them not to interfere with water channels and to also tell others that those guilty, that we are coming for them.”
The senior Special Assistant on Monitoring Inspection and Enforcement to the minister of FCT, Ikahro Attah expressed shocked at the level of illegality in the area.
He said,”I am very surprised at the level of illegality here, thanks to Development Control who spotted this illegality here. People decided to build on water way,constructing on stream making this area Gwarinpa prone to flooding.”
“They even pushed the stream to a point that if there is an heavy rain,there will be massive flooding and this is a disaster waiting to happen.
‘Very sad here, the FCTA through Federal Capital Territory, Emergency Management Agency, FEMA and other components agencies had given warning , the Federal Government had given warning through the water resources, NIMET has also warned against an impending flooding.”
But people decided to build on the flood plain with only about 15 meters distance, some built zero meters, some on minus 3 meters thereby constricting the water way.
If when disaster strikes, they will blame Government as unserious, this is why we are removing all of them by the water corridor, Attah explained.
He said that work is still ongoing emphasizing that all houses on the water plain are going,
“We are counting them, we don’t know the number yet. The Development Control are really showing commitment to save lives, so that flooding would not happen in Gwarinpa.
“The FCTA is really committed to ensuring that lives are not lost as a result of flooding.”
Speaking on the environmental of sanitation in the affected area, Attah lamented that not even one soak away in the whole community, adding that once anyone defecates and urinate everything comes straight to the stream and that is a disaster waiting to happen anytime soon.
He stressed that the people cannot dig soak away because the place is a water bed.
FCTA is also trying to prevent flooding so that when rain comes, it will have a wilder flood plain to pass through, Attah said.
