Residents of Karmo, a suburb of Abuja, the FCT, are now in deep worry as about 500 illegal structures have come under bulldozers within the week.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), through the Department of Development Control, ordered the demolition.
D’Gallery gathered that the structures were illegally built on road corridors in Karmo as well as at the popular Karmo Market.
Assistant Director, Sector Monitor in the Department of Development Control, Garba Jibrin, said that the demolition became imperative because the structured had been posing a lot of inconveniences to the area since Abuja was created as the FCT.
Jibrin explained that there had been serious gridlocks on the Karmo Road on a daily basis made it very difficult for motorists and residents of the area to access the road.
“So, for us to make it easy for Abuja residents, the minister said we should open up the road by ensuring that all the bottlenecks along the road are cleared,” he said.
“Part of it is the informal commercial activities along the road. It is a known fact that every one that wants to pass here on a market day spends hours to go across this area.
“So, the FCTA is concerned about the health and safety of every resident. There is a market that is opened, and fully built and waiting for the traders to come and occupy it.
“So, based on that, we have settled this problem here, that they should move away from here and relocate to the new market that has been built for them to occupy,” he said.
The Assistant Director, while speaking on the extent to which the administration sensitised the traders, said that they were fully notified, sensitised and carried along in the demolition.
“The director has held a meeting with stakeholders of this market more than three times. We even served them 24 hours notice and this is 48 hours after we served them the notice. We sincerely carried them along, that is why there is success in this operation. Some of them have started dismantling their shops even before we started, to prove that they have been carried along,” he said.
On the exorbitant rents put on the new market shops by the developer, Jubrin said that during the stakeholders. the meeting, the Abuja market management and developers clarified that they are offering a one-year free operation for anyone relocating from the demolished marker to the new market, without making any payment for the informal or formal sector.
Secretary, Command and Control Centre, FCTA, Dr Peter Olumuji, while speaking on the security implications of the demolition exercise, said that Karmo community had been an unplanned settlement, adding that a lot of illegalities had been going on in the area.
“If you look at the road corridor that leads from Gwagwa to Karmo to Kado, which has the Karmo main market here, we have a lot of shanties and unplanned settlements that people hibernate.
“These people during the night time go into all types of crimes, even those who ply these routes are not safe from their nefarious activities. What we have come to do here in conjunction with the development control by clearing this place. It is going to reduce the crime rate within this axis.
“Also, it is going to bring a new lease of life to whatever activities that are going on here because the minister of the FCT is concerned about the security and safety of everyone. He has assured the residents of the FCT that they can reside anywhere that is legal without any act of harassment or threats to life,” he said.
