By Ayoni M. Agbabiaka
In a swift reaction to media reports last Thursday that Department of Development Control of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), accidentally killed a child during a demolition exercise in Lungi village, FCTA has refuted the claim, saying that, it was politically motivated.
Coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), Arch. Reuben Okoya, while briefing journalists on behalf of the administration on
Friday, said, the villagers should produce corpses of those allegedly killed during the exercise and the crisis that followed.
The coordinator said contrary to media reports, there was no such cases of deaths as claimed.
According to him, neither the security agencies that participated in the exercise nor the Health Secretary of the FCT have received any report of such deaths.
His said: “Unfortunately, from our own side, we have no record of such deaths. Agencies that are responsible for report any of such deaths if it occurred have not reported any.
“We state our position very clearly that yesterday the department went out to carry out it statutory responsibility of making sure the Abuja Master Plan is maintained. They went to the village about 10 and by 12.50 they had finished the exercise.”
Explaining, Okoya said, “We went out based on some certain issues. First there were illegal structures developed on plots already allocated by the minister to some Nigerians. There was a court injunction served by the court to the department that stopped us from going ahead with the exercise however, the case was thrown out of the court in May so we went to the village to ensure that the exercise is carried out”
He insisted that the chief of the village was informed that the department was coming out and the villagers were equally notified.
The coordinator however, said, “We are going to keep sanitising the city to make sure Abuja is clean, shanties don’t take over the city. However, we shall do it with consideration for human beings. If we do not do this exercise, Abuja will become a big slum and we will not allow that. We find that these are political times, we plead to everybody that our activities are not meant to harm anybody or cause disaffection. We are doing what we are supposed to do to make sure the city remain sane.”
Director, Development Control, Yahaya Yusuf, corroborating Okoya, said the chief and villagers were duly notified before the exercise was embarked on.
The director said people were only capitalising on the fact that such protest happened recently along the Abuja Airport Road and the perpetrators went scout free. “I mean this is why we said the issue is suspicious”.
