Demolition in Kuje will not stop soon, says FCTA

The Federal Capital Territory Administration has said the ongoing demolition of illegal structures in Kuje Area Council will not end soon, saying that illegalities in the area council have become too alarming to be tolerated by the government.

The FCTA, which insisted that all the demolition in the area council followed due processes, called on the area council leadership to set up a multi-agency taskforce to sustain the success achieved through the demolition exercise.

The FCTA made this disclosure during a stakeholders dialogue, organised by the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Monitoring, Inspection, and Enforcement, to get feedback from both political and community leaders in Kuje Area Council.

Speaking on the importance of the ongoing demolition exercise, the Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection, and Enforcement to FCT Minister, Ikharo Attah, said it was disheartening to see that public roads were converted to illegal markets, while government reserved lands were taken over for personal purposes.

Attah further noted that while the FCT Administration has committed a lot of resources to the exercise, the Area Council management needed to put in place a mechanism to prevent unlawful people from jeopardising the huge success that has been recorded.

He insisted that the indigenous people that have structures within the Kuje railway corridors will get a reprieve, while non-indigenes, who ignored warnings to buy land and build houses there, will not be compensated.

“The illegalities in Kuje Area Council cannot disappear swiftly. Those selling on the road have come to see the road as their property and not a place for all of us. Those who occupied the market parking space see it as a place for them and not for all of us.

“Those who are converting the rail corridor and selling it, see it as their own and not for all of us. Those who have forcefully removed the Area Council from the fruits market and sold it to individuals see the place for them and not for all of us.”