Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barr. Nyesom Wike, has ordered the immediate demolition of houses found obstructing designated water channels in Maitama and other flood-prone areas of Abuja.
Wike, who issued the directive after inspecting flood-affected areas in Maitama on Tuesday, said the demolition would commence immediately and continue until Saturday, regardless of the ongoing political activities or the status of the owners of the affected properties.
The minister said the government would no longer tolerate the obstruction of waterways by property owners, warning that the exercise would affect all structures found to have been built on designated water channels, irrespective of the status of their owners.
“We will demolish all those houses found on the water channel. Some of them are senators. Some of them are big men,” Wike said.
“Whether there’s election or there’s no election, all those houses will go down. Heaven will not fall. Rather, heaven will be at peace that the right thing has been done.”
The FCT minister said the recent flooding had exposed several man-made factors contributing to flooding in the capital city, including the construction of buildings on waterways, blockage of drainage channels, indiscriminate dumping of refuse and failure by relevant officials to properly supervise developments and desilt drainage infrastructure.
According to him, the government had inspected the affected locations and discovered that some property owners had deliberately blocked channels designated in the Abuja Master Plan for the passage of stormwater.
“Unfortunately, we have gone there, and we have seen how people have blocked channels where, in the Master Plan, that is the right way where the water is supposed to be channelled,” he said.
Wike said the affected structures were not recently constructed and were largely owned by wealthy Nigerians, stressing that the government would no longer allow social status to prevent enforcement of development regulations.
“All those built-up areas that were not supposed to be built up, not a single poor person will live there. Those houses are houses built by well-to-do Nigerians,” he said.
“Those houses are not houses that were built last week. Those houses have been there 10 years ago, eight years ago.”
The minister said previous administrations might not have had the political will to enforce the regulations, while some government officials may also have failed to carry out their responsibilities effectively.
He, however, insisted that the present FCT Administration had the political will to tackle the situation.
“And let nobody make the mistake that this government lacks the political will to do anything. The person must be making a very big mistake,” Wike said.
“If there is one minister that has that political will, I have. I have the political will.”
Wike also rejected attempts to politicise the recent flooding, arguing that flooding was not a new phenomenon in Abuja or other major cities around the world.
He said while the intensity of rainfall experienced recently could be linked partly to climate change and natural factors, human activities had also contributed significantly to the flooding.
“Flood could be a natural disaster,” he said, citing flooding incidents in cities such as Dubai, the United States and the United Kingdom.
“We are in a climate change period. The kind of rains we have experienced, or we are experiencing now, we have not experienced before. But that is not that there are no man-made factors. There are.”
Wike identified the construction of buildings on waterways, development in areas not designated for construction, failure to desilt drainage systems and indiscriminate disposal of waste as major human factors responsible for flooding.
He directed the relevant FCT authorities to commence immediate desilting of identified drainage systems.
