Barely two days to the expiration of two-week pre-demolition notice, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), on Sunday urged Mpape Traders and Artisans operating on roadsides to quit.
Mr Ikharo Attah, the Chairman, FCT Ministerial Taskforce on City Sanitation, at an interactive session with newsmen, on Sunday in Abuja, expressed worry that most traders are yet to leave.
” What ones sees in Mpape is painful. They have months to pack and remove their shops and containers from the days Mpape Landlords Association came to plead with the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello.
” We also issued additional two weeks quit notice to enable traders evacuate from the roadside. All these appeared to be falling on deaf ears.”
” In most areas like market stretch, Bedger Quarry and Katampe Junction over 99 per cent of illegal structures to be cleared are still where they are.
We know the pain and tears of demolition and that is why we are pleading with them to leave the roadside before the expiration of the quit notice,” Attah said.
The chairman explained that FCTA had enjoined Mpape traders to go off the roadside, shift their containers and illegal shops backward a little but they refused.
Attah noted that Mpape was a gateway to and from Abuja’s main resettlement Community at Shere And Galuwi, hence the need for the road to be cleared of encumbrances.
According to him, along the market stretch, structures within 25 metres from the road shoulders must be removed on both sides.
He added that ” We observed that sadly most people have extended shops and structures multiple times to a point where they now sit on the road shoulders.
” Therefore, the planned demolition in Mpape is long over due. The Landlords, Residents and motorists are daily begging us to come because the traffic gridlock and insecurity is too much for them to shoulder.”
Attah, however, declined to comment on the exact day and time the taskforce and its bulldozers would roll into Mpape community.
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