The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has mobilized to demolish in the next 48 hours, about 10 marked structures in different stages of development in Wumba for building on area designated as Green Zone.

Officials of Development Control, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC) and Abuja Environment Protection Board (AEPB) were on ground Thursday for the exercise.

Director Development Control, Mukhtar Galadima, told reporters the affected structures had no approval and the developers were invited to stop work but chose to defy constituted authority.

He said: “No, we didn’t give them approval and when you look around, you would see it’s evident that we marked these structures at different stages of development. But the unfortunate thing and by our attitude, people don’t like to respect constituted authority and as I told my colleague that the only language Nigerians understand is the language of bring it down. The developer was invited and he was asked to stop work but it seems the only thing that they would understand is when the structures are down.

“We are looking at about over 10 structures, some are roofed and some are not yet roofed. So, the development control will come over here with their machine and in less than 48 hours everything here should go down”.

Also, the AMMC Coordinator, Felix Obuah, said equipment and personnel had been mobilized to ensure that the illegal structures on the waterway were pulled down as promised recently.

“You can see for yourself, we have mobilized machinery and personnel. Just like I did promise, the whole thing is going down. We have to actually make sure that we sanitize this nonsense that is going on in Abuja.

“We can’t allow it to happen, because the Minister meant well. He is doing all his best. For those of us who are in AMMC, it is left for us to do the needful, which we are doing,” Obuah said.

He declared that the council had identified the persons responsible for the infraction, adding although they were on the run, the authority would ensure their arrest.

“We are AMMC and we cover everywhere. So, there is no going back. Even while we are living here, we are going to other areas. We are finishing about three, four areas today. It is a continuous work. All the areas that people have contravened, we are going to bring them down. So, there is no going back.

“When we invited the developer to provide legal documents for the activities he’s carrying out, we all discovered that there is no paper, no approval, no allocation. So, I asked him to stop working.

“You can see that the work is still going on. These properties that you are seeing there, they are all going down.

“Come back here in the next 48 hours, you will see everything down. I have told you we are not going to take it lightly again with any illegal developer that does not want to retain the master plan of Abuja.

This area is a green area. We have invited the developer and asked him to stop working but then he doesn’t want to do that. The only language he will hear is, we will bring everything here down. That is all. And I have directed the development control to move out with their machine in less than 48 hours”.