From Fred Itua, Abuja
In order to prevent incessant flooding in one of Abuja’s major residential estates, Trademore, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), on Thursday, removed over 30 houses, that are on flood plains.
The FCT Minister Taskforce Team, led by Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to FCT Minister, Attah Ikharo, while fielding questions from newsmen at the site, revealed that over 100 houses were marked, but 30 houses would be removed immediately.
According to him, “This is an ongoing removal of illegal structures on the flood plain at the Trademore estate along airport road.
“This estate has been a theatre of flooding. Very intensive flooding here and we have been engaging them for years and they have come to terms that this area is very dangerous to their lives and the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Malam Muhammad Bello, has asked us to remove all illegal structures on the flood plain. And that is what the machine behind me is doing.
“There has been excessive development on the flood plain in Trademore Estate of some persons and these is very worrisome.
“All the houses that are going down were marked and some have been marked as long as three years ago, some were marked at foundation level, window level, roofing level. The final marking was about four days ago. And we gave them 48 hours and even gave them additional 24 hours.”
He continued: “For now, 30 houses are going, but over 100 were marked but we are still engaging critical stakeholders around there.
“After removing the first 30 houses, we will engage with them. We look at how we can use land use act to find a solution.
“Like what some of them are saying that the developer of Trademore Estate should be charged to court. They have the locus standing to take him to court.
“We are very keen in getting the structures out so that water can pass and lives are saved in the city.”
He also reiterated that the administration
won’t compensate anyone because there was no building plan, no approval and no allocation on the flood plain. We are not going to give any compensation because there was no building approval.”
