Bulldozers of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, on Tuesday, stormed the Durumi 1 and 2 area of the FCT removing shanties allegedly harbouring criminals in the area.
The exercise said to be continuation of government’s measures to tackle the menace of insecurity and environmental challenges in the capital city also saw members of the FCT enforcement taskteam removing makeshift structures mainly made of woods and zincs and all structures erected without approval from the relevant authorities.
The team accompanied by joint security personnel drawn from Military and Paramilitary agencies also removed the perimeter fence of the Junior secondary school and Primary Healthcare Centre Durumi as well as clusters of shops serving as community market in the area.
Our correspondent observed that the clean up operation resulted to the displacement of owners and occupiers of the removed shanties, hitherto used for trading and living purposes in the area.
One of the affected persons, James Aleke, who claimed to have been running his furniture business in the are since 2008, said the exercise has left him stranded, as there are no other place for him to relocate to.
He said, “I have never seen this kind of thing before, which is not making our lives easy. And my wife also is equally affected, her own shop is right behind mine.
“Going to get a shop in town is not just for the ordinary man, and the little place we are managing, have been demolished without notice.
“For me, I will just use my contacts to be making furniture pending when God would bless us with another place, but Government should come to our aid and rescue, because the suffering is getting to much”.
However, while admitting that there are a lot of criminal elements in the area, Aleke noted that most of the disloged persons that are doing legitimate things should have been spared from the exercise.
For Miss Rose Sunday, one of the women leaders in the demolished market, who said her two shops were demolished, said they were taken aback by the development, and are left with nowhere to go to, as most them were not able to salvage anything.
“We have children, sisters and other dependants, like for me, I don’t have money to carry my belongings away from this place. So I don’t know how to do now,” she laments.
On his part, the Sarkin Yaki, Durumi, Hon John Bawa, said the community has witnessed series of attacks and lots of security challenges, with members of the community losing valuable property in the attacks.
Bawa said the demolition operation is in line with the security action required for areas overrun by hoodlums, if government must curb the menace of insecurity.
According to him: “The rate of killings has significantly reduced in recent times, as it was almost every week, you will see dead body, and each it happens , we report to the Police for necessary action.
“The only complain we have is that the community leaders should be properly informed, so as to put their house in order. This is because, at times in the process of removing the shanties where these criminals are been harboured, the indigenes houses are tampered with.
“As far as the residential structures of the indigenes are not tampered with for now, I’m calling on my people to calm down, and after this exercise, the community will have to sit down, plan the market well, so that we will have a market, as it is needed in any settlement”.
Earlier, the Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement, Comrade Ikharo Attah, said it was upon the FCT Minister’s directive, the Team moved into the area to address extreme notoriety, distinguishing in forms of shanties.
Attah disclosed that police reports indicate that there have been a number of secret killings recorded in that area.
“You could see that for the first time, the indigenes are out leading the machines to areas where people come to rob and attack them, so we are doing the clearing and we are continuing that operation based on what the minister had asked us to do.
“We have given notice before coming for the actual removal exercise, and about two months the team had even started demolition there, but stopped, only to return yesterday to continue and complete the exercise”, he stressed.
