Akakan Umoh
Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, has directed the demolition of houses built on designated water channels in Abuja, warning that structures obstructing waterways will be removed.
Wike gave the order on Tuesday during a press briefing at his office after inspecting areas affected by flooding in parts of the FCT following heavy rainfall.
This was as Senator Ireti Kingibe says developments on green areas and flood channels is obstructing water flow and worsening flooding across Abuja.
The minister, in a video posted by Nigerian Affairs Journal, said his inspection showed that some property owners had blocked channels designated for water flow under the Abuja Master Plan.
“And certainly, we have gone there, and we have seen how people have blocked channels where in the master plan, that is the right way where a channel is supposed to be. People, by their positions, have blocked it, believing that nothing will happen,” he said.
Wike said the recent flooding had exposed the consequences of blocking waterways, adding that the affected structures would be demolished.
“I have told people this in life: that nothing happened yesterday does not mean that something will not happen today. That it did not happen today does not mean that it will not happen tomorrow,” he said.
“Now you have done your own by blocking the water channel, and nothing has happened. Thank God the flood has come; it has drawn our attention to the place. Now, something will happen. I am going to bring those houses down. Any house that falls on the water channel will go down.”
The minister gave the FCT Development Control Department until Saturday to act against structures found on waterways.
“From today to Saturday, if Development Control likes, let them find any excuses. If they like, let them find excuses—too bad. They can’t. We will demolish all those houses found on the water channel,” he said.
Wike said the demolition would not be affected by the status of the owners of the properties, including politicians.
“Some of them are Senators, some of them are big men. The next thing you’ll see is campaigns now: ‘Oh, why is he doing this during the election?’ That is the next campaign you will see now. Stop it! We have finished elections. Where is the election? There is no election. All those houses will go down,” he said.
“Heaven will not fall; rather, heaven will fall if that peace, that right thing, has not been done.”
The minister’s remarks followed his inspection of flooded areas in Maitama, Abuja, where he also visited a designated drainage area on which a structure had been erected despite the plot’s revocation in 2011.
Wike’s aide on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, had said the location was a drainage area that was allocated but later revoked.
“The spot here is a Drainage Area. It was allocated, but REVOKED in 2011. Structure was built on it,” Olayinka wrote in a post accompanying video footage of the inspection.
The inspection came amid concerns over flooding in parts of Abuja following heavy rainfall on Saturday.
Olayinka had previously said the FCT Administration was reviewing the 1979 Abuja Master Plan to reflect current realities and had begun installing drainage covers designed to make them more difficult for scavengers to remove.
Kingibe Blames Construction On Green Areas, Flood Channels
Meanwhile, Senator Kingibe representing the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), senatorial district, linked the worsening flooding in Abuja to construction on green areas, flood channels and flood plains, warning that blocked waterways are leaving rainwater with fewer routes to drain.
Speaking in an interview on ARISE NEWS on Monday, Senator Kingibe said she had written letters to relevant FCT agencies over the continued construction on green areas, flood channels and flood plains, condemning what she described as a departure from Abuja’s master plan.
“Most definitely, some of the development approved under the current FCT administration is actually increasing Abuja’s flood risk. I’ve been singing the song about the green areas, the gullies, the flood channels, flood plains, because I see them being built on.
”I’ve been complaining that Development Control cannot give permission for these things to happen. But it’s happening, and this is the result. If you go to Wuse Zone 6, some sort of residential project is being built on the sewage line. The whole place stinks. So it’s a health risk,” she lamented.
She highlighted further: “A lot of the gullies, even in Asokoro, not too far from the home of the Senate President, there’s a flood channel that has been built on. There’s a whole list of them.
“Jabi Park is a park, a public park. Now, the greenery, even if you go around just on the side of the Shehu Yar’Adua Center, there’s a gully there, a very deep one, that has now been fenced off to be used for something, I don’t know what.
“So at the end of the day, when it rains, especially as there are rocks all around Abuja, when the water starts coming down, there’s nowhere for them to flow into because all their paths are closed. Even the flood channels that are not completely closed off have become so narrow that the water can’t really properly pass. So you can’t construct on every space in a city, especially since the city had a master plan that totally contradicts that.
“My letter was to Development Control, Abuja Environmental Protection Board, as well as the FCDA, because they are the primary agencies whose responsibility it is to take care of these problems,” she said.
The FCT senator stressed that her concerns about Abuja’s infrastructure predated her disagreements with the FCT Minister, saying she had raised concerns about green areas and the potential for flooding long before the current situation emerged.
According to her, her interventions were driven by the need to protect her constituents and were not motivated by any personal dispute with the minister.
“From the beginning, I’ve always reiterated and said there’s been no reason for there to be political conflict on my part. Last December, I complained about green areas and potential for flooding. Even a year before that, I made several complaints before these things started materializing. Maybe as an engineer, I could see the potential.
”When I first became a senator, I called the head of Development Control and spoke to him about these concerns. So it’s not personal to the minister. It’s just that everything that impacts negatively on my constituents, I need to take it up with somebody, and he’s the person who is giving the direct approval for some of these things. B
”ut it’s not about shutting me up. The people’s welfare… They voted for me and the House of Reps members, there are only three of us representing them. When they have these issues, the first person they start screaming for is me,” she clarified.
