Remodel Kugbo market to check infernos — Women town planners

The Association of Women Town Planners of Nigeria (AWTPN) has called on the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to remodel the Kugbo furniture market to avert the incessant fire incidents at the facility.

Chairperson of the FCT chapter of the association, Tpl. Lami Ayuba, who spoke during the AWTPN’s International Women Day celebration in Abuja, said the market is congested and needed to be built according to approved standards.

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She said as professionals in the built environment, the women want their impact felt in the sector.

“During the fire disaster at Kugbo market, the association visited the scene and assessed the cause and impact of the fire disaster and we also offered a solution on what can be done to avert such fire disasters.

We discovered that the market is congested, the shops have encroached into the right of way and also the building materials used in constructing the market are sub-standard because most of them don’t have approval and that was what intensified the spread of the fire,” she said.

The AWTPN chairman stated also that they have made their recommendations to the FCT Minister of the State, Hajiya Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, and she had assured that she would partner with the town planners to make sure the city feels the impact of town planning and is a livable space for people to live in and an environment to enjoy.

Tpl. Lami noted that women town planners are leaders in the built environment, and urged her professional colleagues to positively position the profession.

She, however, expressed concern over what she described as the proliferation of all manner of ‘estates’ in the city without planning, stressing that a proper standard should be evolved for estate development in the FCT.

The minister of state, who was the chairman of the occasion, urged women in leadership positions to continue to push the boundaries of gender equality by utilising their strengths and leadership qualities in skills, knowledge, experience and emotion, adding that women must pursue the things they want from their job and career, and not wait for them to come to them.

Represented by the Director, FCT Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Tpl. Zalihatu Ahmed, also tasked female town planners to find solutions to the attendant multi-dimensional consequences of rapid urbanisation, as Nigerians strive to provide livable spaces both within and outside urban centres.