THE Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Monday demolished a mini market at Area 11 in Abuja metropolis.
According to the Chairman, Task Force on City Sanitation in the FCT, Ikharo Attah, the market was not captured in the Abuja Masterplan.
Attah also said the market was constituting public nuisance.
READ ALSO:
How Abuja became the city with uncovered manholes
Abuja community suffers blackout after spending millions on transformer purchase, maintenance
Families of Abuja-Kaduna train abductees accuse Amaechi, NRC of apathy
Abuja stadium violence: FIFA slams N63.9 million fine on Nigeria
Speaking in an interview with The ICIR, Attah said traders in the market had been warned to vacate the area about three months ago.
“We had given them a warning of at least three months before coming,” he said.
While speaking to journalists at the scene of the exercise, he noted that the market which began as a small restaurant, had become a major threat to the Abuja Masterplan.
“This place is constituting nuisance to Area 11, it started as a small restaurant, gradually it metamorphosed into a market, now it has become a serious challenge.
“The activities on this single plot of land have become a serious issue; the FCT Minister, Malam Mohammad Bello, has directed that we should clear the place,” he said.
The ICIR also gathered that some houses and stalls erected beneath high tension cables and along road corridors have been marked for demolition in the Karu and Jikwoyi areas of the FCT.
Demolition exercises are commonplace within the FCT.
Minister of the FCT, Mohammad Musa Bello, had said the exercises were meant to correct distortions of the city’s Masterplan.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via vopara@icirnigeria.org or @ije_le on Twitter.