Petty traders at Zuba, a suburb of Abuja, were visibly angry Tuesday as FCT Ministerial Task Team on City Sanitation dismantled illegal motor parks and shanties in the area.
Officials of the team led by its chairman, Ikharo Attah, in the wee hours of the day stormed the popular Dankogi area on Zuba-Kaduna expressway and demolished the illegal motor parks which the traders operate in makeshifts, constituting security threat to the people.
Fielding questions from journalists after the exercise tagged ‘clean up’ the chairman said removing of the structures was in line with the directives of the minister of the FCT, Malam Muhammad Bello, to maintain sanity in the city.
Attah stated that the exercise followed the minister of FCT’s directives on the need to reclaim the inter-change in Zuba being abused by traders and motorists.
He regretted that the inter-change has been taken over by shanties in the name of trading, causing gridlock and nuisance.
The chairman stated that, “The minister is not comfortable with the abuse of the plan of the inter-change which is supposed to be green, but is converted into a transport hub that is gradually becoming a shanty and criminals’ den. The area has also become a plantain market.
“We are removing the illegal structures to reclaim Zuba because some criminals are coming to the spot. So, the exercise today is multi dimensional, one is to reclaim the Zuba inter-change, two is to remove shanties where criminals hide, three is to free traffic coming from Kubwa-Dei-Dei axis that connect Zuba and Zuma rock axis on Abuja-Kaduna express way,” he said.
