‘Wetin My Children Go Eat When Dey Return From School?’ — Kubwa Traders Lament After Demolition Exercise

The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), on Thursday, carried out a demolition exercise in Kubwa to rid the area of illegal structures and marketplaces as part of their mandate to keep the Federal Capital Territory clean from eyesores.

However, many traders who were affected by the raid lamented the alleged impromptu actions of the government officials in separate interviews with THE WHISTLER.

A woman who gave her name as Tina said she never expected the demolition to take place today as she had started roasting her yam and plantain (bole) by the roadside when the AEPB vans came and she had to start packing her wares.

Tina, with teary eyes, said the small business is what she and her family survive on as her husband is jobless.

Speaking in Pidgin English, she said: “I no know wetin I fit to do now because I no get helper. My oga no get a job, na this business I dey pay school fees, pay house rent and my family day see garri drink be that. The thing dey pain me, wetin my children go eat when they come back from school” she said

Like Tina, Joy who was trying to pack up her roasted yams and other things by the Arab junction in Kubwa, said they were not given notice by AEPB except for rumours of the demolition exercise.

“I do this business to support my husband and to augment the little he gives us. I have been trying to pack my things since I heard they were around the NYSC junction, I do not have strength anymore,” she said.

For Auwal, he is aware that the government has to keep the city clean but his phone charging business is the only way he could earn a living since he couldn’t secure a job.

“I do charge people’s phones here for a token. I know the government wants to keep the city clean, that is why they are demolishing but this is how I am making money to survive. The government is not giving us jobs, hence, the situation we find ourselves”

Speaking to Journalists at the scene of the exercise, Mr Ikharo Attah, Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement, said the officials acted on the orders of the minister to clean all illegal structures around the NYSC junction and the route leading to the train station that gives the FCT a bad name especially due to the location of the Orientation Camp and the train station that has begun its operations.

Attah said “the minister is keen on working hard to ensure that as his tenure draws to an end, all institutions work hard because he does not want flood as the rainy season is here. the minister does not want to bequeath a burden on his successor which is why we are here to clean drainages being blocked too”

He added that it is unfortunate that the people erecting the illegal structures are aware that their actions are wrong and ignored the warning given to them by the minister, AEPB teams and other stakeholders involved.

The Assistant Director, of Monitoring and Enforcement, Abuja Environmental Protection Board, Kaka Bello added that despite the notice and media awareness given, illegal shanties, kiosks and trading activities persist.

He stated that aside from the gridlock it causes around the areas, the illegal trading activities lead to drainage blocks which impact the environment negatively, particularly as the rainy season approaches hence, the need to carry out cleanups daily.

Bello urged the traders not to occupy the “road corridors” but locate a designated market space within the Kubwa axis to carry out their commercial activities.

“We appeal to the illegal traders and people patronising them to vacate the road corridors. People should take advantage of the designated market within the Kubwa area and do their businesses and not occupy the road” he declared.