The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has demolished a popular village in the Durumi axis of the territory known as Monkey village which the administration has identified as a notorious criminal hideout after they unleashed negative activities on innocent Nigerians in the area.
The FCT director of security services, Mr Adamu Gwary, while speaking to journalists during the exercise, lamented the level of criminality that was perpetrated by the people living in the village.
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According to him, “We all know the security implications of this type of shanties, where the Monkey village is harbouring criminals. Looking at the calibre of offices, like the Federal Secretariat, you can see the proximity to these shanties, and the government cannot condone such illegalities. We have to ensure the government offices, residents, and other offices here are safe and secured.”
The director of the Department of Development Control, Mukhtar Galadima, also said the work is in continuation of the city sanitation that was ordered by the minister of FCT, Malam Muhammad Bello a few months ago.
He lamented the abuse of land use in the area, saying one of such abuse is the conversion of the road corridor to a market, which according to him is unacceptable by the government and therefore must be removed.
Galadima, therefore urged all the owners of the land in that area to come and take over their respective properties to stop the squatters from coming back.
The senior special assistant to FCT minister on monitoring, inspection and enforcement, Ikharo Attah, said the belief that the Monkey Village cannot be removed is very wrong, which was why they have progressed from shanties a few months ago to a full fledged house built with cement and mud.
“The land belongs to Nigeria Police and whatever they are planning for the future they have not started using it, so the people moved in and they became so notorious and this place served as criminal hideouts.
“On Monday when we cleaned the other parts, we discovered that people were packing their things into monkey village and we had to move in there and remove it. And the notorious monkey village is history. FCDA would inform the Nigeria Police to take over their property. The FCDA has legal backing and the police are keen to take over the property,” he said.