By Laraba MUREY
The plan of making the Mpape Crush Rock Spring Water site one of the biggest tourism sites in the country may not be realised if nothing was done to stop miscreants and other criminal elements from overrunning the site.
This was the concern of community leaders of Mpape when they interfaced with the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, over the weekend.
Mpape community hosts one of the most attractive tourism sites known as the Crush Rock Spring Water.
A beautiful underdeveloped tourism sites, said to have the potential for unbelievable revenue generation annually.
They told the Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to FCT Minister, Ikharo Attah, that suspected criminals were retaking the tourism sites in the area after they were dislodged months ago.
They noted that their joy of having a serene environment, devoid of traffic gridlock and streets urchins after the last massive clean-up exercise embarked on in Mpape by the FCT Ministerial Committee on City Sanitation, has been cut off.
Mpape’s paramount ruler, Chief Musa Ahmadu, noted with dismay that all the places where the taskforce dislodged illegal occupants, has been fully rebuilt against their wish.
He regretted that the miscreants have even deepened their criminal activities at the tourism sites, and were scaring would-be tourists from visiting the area.
The chief appealed to the FCTA to immediately send its taskforce back to the community and remove the illegal market extensions and all the hideouts of the criminals within the tourism site.
Responding to the plea, Mr Ikharo Attah said it was unfortunate that few people have continued to force government to waste scarce resources on demolishing illegal structures.
He stated that the administration had expected that all residents would heed the warnings and stop promoting illegalities as a way of helping the government save resources meant for the development of the city.
Attah assured that his team would soon return to Mpape to sustain the clean-up exercise, even as he warned the miscreants and all the residents who have disregard for extant laws, and are rebuilding the demolished illegal structures to desist from it.
According to him, if government is forced to expend public funds to come back to Mpape, the clean-up exercise will be brutal.
He warned that while the miscreants who are illegally retaking the tourism sites will be arrested and prosecuted, he affirmed that the traders who are rebuilding the illegal extension may lose their goods.
