At last, bulldozers remove Mpape shanties

Sep, 2021 | By Wisdom Acka

Personnel of Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) last week stormed Mpape and other parts of the Territory which were replete with illegal structures, pulling down the unsightly buildings in the process.
The removal of the structures came in the wake of series of notices to residents of the affected communities by officials of FCTA on the illegality of the buildings.


Finally, last Wednesday, bulldozers rolled into Mpape in particular. Brought down were about
2,000 roadside shanties, containers, and illegal structures, which the Administration had, time and again, warned were obstructing traffic flow.
Many residents whose property was affected were seen making frantic efforts to recover what they could lay their hands on as the bulldozers rumbled away at work.


Chairman, FCT Ministerial Committee on City Sanitation, Ikharo Attah, told newsmen that Mpape Residents and Landlords Association, had six months ago, urged FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, to assist the area as illegal commercial activities had taken over the road corridors.
Attah stressed that the sanitation and demolition were long overdue, adding that the exercise was targeted at roadside shanties and other unapproved buildings which caused obstruction along the road.


His words: “We gave them enough notice, but many of them were basking in the euphoria that nobody can clear Mpape. A resident, who has lived in Mpape for 20 years, said people can now breathe in the fresh air, because of the widened road.”
An official of Department of Security Services (DSS), who identified himself simply as Peter, for his part, pointed fingers at several of the removed shanties and illegal structures, insisting that they were hideouts for suspected criminals.


According to him, intelligence received had indicated a rising profile of crime in Mpape as several of the shanties allegedly were safe hiding places for criminals.