In order to prevent incessant flooding in Trademore Estate Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory Administration,Thursday, removed over 30 houses on flood plains.
The FCT Minister’s Taskforce Team, led by Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to FCT Minister, Ikharo Attah, while fielding questions from journalists at the site, revealed that over 100 houses were marked but 30 houses would be removed immediately.
According to him, “This is ongoing removal of illegal structures on the flood plain at the Trademore Estate along Airport Road. This estate has been a theatre of 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 4 days ago. And we gave them 48 hours and even gave them additional 24 hours.
“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 solution act to find solution,” he said.
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,” he said.
One of them, Sadat Bankole, who has been leaving in that area for over 10 years, said if the demolition will save and prevent further loss of lives, then she is in support.
“What has been happening here is not palatable. Why is flooding constant in this area in the last few years. My view is that if people’s lives are involved then demolition should take place so that the place would be free from flooding.”
