Insecurity: FCTA demolishes over 350 illegal structures near Abuja Airport

No fewer than 350 structures were yesterday demolished in the densely populated Bassa-Jiwa village, situated near the Nnamdi Azikiwe Int’l Airport, in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Most of the demolished structures were residential buildings, shanties and kiosks sitting on the right of way (ROW), under the train bridge, and pedestrian crossing in and around the village, off the Airport road.

Officials of the FCT Administration’s Taskteam on city sanitation accompanied by a joint team of security personnel stormed and cleared the said structures for allegedly defacing and posing a serious security threat in the area.

Explaining the exercise, the Director, Development Control Department, FCT, Murkhtar Galadima, said the about 350 structures removed were part of the 500 uncontrolled developments marked for demolition in the area.

On whether adequate notice was given before the exercise, Galadima said’ “Before marking the structures, we came for sensitisation first, thereafter, we removed them.

“It is part of our regular exercise to sanitise the city, and in furtherance of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport expansion project being awarded by the Federal Executive Council, so we are to clear all these uncontrolled developments before the commencement of the project. They are over five hundred in number and we have removed close to 350 and we are coming to continue with the marking and removals”.

Illegal structures

Also speaking, the Senior Special Assistant to the Minister on Monitoring Inspection and Enforcement, Mr Ikharo Attah noted that the area has a multiple level of illegality. According to him, underneath the main train bridge connecting the Nnamdi Azikiwe Int’l Airport is full of shanties and the whole community has become a security threat.

“The whole community is wrongly built, thereby defacing the area, as the community has been expanding extremely. Although, good people are in the community, but the bad ones have easy access to hide and commit havoc.

“Even the chief and some of the locals agreed that Bassa- Jiwa needed to be cleaned. We did that while respecting some of the previous markings we had in the community for resettlement and compensation of some indigenous persons there.

“We will keep coming back here, because the FCT Minister gave us a strong marching order to actually purge all communities along the Bill Clinton Drive Airport connecting road and several others around the city” he stressed.

Benefit to all

Reacting to the development, Dauda Gimba, Chief of Bassa- Jiwa village, said that the removal of the shanties was for their good. According to him, “the removal of the shanties under the bridge and along the road corridors have opened up and brought back sanity to the area.

“Even though the exercise also affected me, as they demolished my structures including that of my secretary, I still thank God that they came and notified us, and we worked together with them to ensure compliance.

“What we want the government to do for us is that they should be on ground and ensure that nobody is allowed to erect any structures in the areas cleared”.

Not left out, a resident, Mohammed Abdullahi whose shop was demolished, decried the role of the indigenous people in the area. He urged the government to call them to order, as they were the ones giving land to those who erected the affected structures.

He noted that hitherto to the exercise, “the place was very unhealthy, because it was too crowded and unclean.

“The way the operation was carried out was commendable, as they were allowed to take their goods and other belongings from their structures without any harassment”.

Emmanuel Ukoh