Some residents of Iddo Sabo in the Federal Capital Territory, on Wednesday have accused the FCT Administration of being selective in the ongoing demolition of so-called illegal structures.
The aggrieved residents, while speaking to journalists, accused the minister of being partial, alleging that some structures belonging to influential people in the community were being spared by the FCT Ministerial Task Team on City Sanitation.
A resident of the area, Samuel Amalu, who claimed he was not notified when his structure was demolished, and that the committee spared a building owned by a politician, explained he bought the land two years ago from a local chief and was not told that they were coming for demolition.
“I cried when my house was brought down, but I later stopped crying because doing that will not solve the problem.
Read also: Building Demolitions Displace Many In FCT
“The house left here belongs to the Chairman of PDP, and he said they couldn’t touch his house. Leaving his house and demolishing others is not fair,” Amalu decried.
Another resident, Mrs Funmi Apollos, said the special treatment given to influential persons while demolishing structures to the poor was unfair.
“It is as good as saying the exercise is targeted at the poor. Is it a crime to be poor? We are not going to take this from the minister. We are going to give this all that we have. The right thing must be done.”
Reacting, the Chairman of the FCT Ministerial Committee on City Sanitation, Ikharo Attah, denied the allegation, saying that the clean-up was being carried out in phases.
Attah said, “I think it is completely unfair for anyone to accuse the FCT minister of being biased or partial. This is not the case at all. It is all about policy with a human face, which we recognise here.
“The day we went to Iddo Sabo, we tried as much as possible to understand the people.
“What I can tell you is that the owner of that particular building pleaded with us very strongly that he was somewhat not as prepared as expected; in fact, he said he was in shock.
“And in line with the human face principle, we decided to give them time. We went in, finished the clean-up for that particular day and pulled out with a promise to return.
“The same thing played out when we went into Iddo Sarki, where we went to the house of a particular widow, but the councillor in that area appealed that we give her time so that they can relocate her beyond the fence line. So, it is all about human face and not bias. If you follow through all our operations, you will see that we have been fair.
“Though we haven’t returned to Iddo Sabo since the last operation we carried out in the community, but that does not mean that we are biased and it will be unfair to judge us as being biased.”
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The FCT Administration had last month demolished illegal structures at Iddo Sarki and Sabo Iddo near the University of Abuja’s permanent site.
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