The Association of Trademore Estate Residents in Abuja yesterday observed a two-hour sit-at-home from 7am to 9am to protest against the planned demolition of structures in the estate by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA).
City & Crime learnt that the residents while observing the symbolic sit-at-home shut down the estate’s entrance.
Thereafter, the association held a press conference to denounce the FCT’s authorities who declared the radius of the estate as a disaster zone that “needs immediate action to remedy further damages and loss of lives and property.”
City & Crime earlier reported that an early morning downpour on June 23, caused flash floods and traffic jams in and around the estate.
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Spokesperson of the association, Adewale Adenaikan, who read the press statement, maintained that Trademore Estate was not illegal and neither was it a disaster zone.
He noted that, “Rather, what we have is a disaster in leadership of the FCTA who’re too shy to think and too lazy to carry out their primary responsibility.
“What we need is the implementation of the already provided solutions to the flooding, not the easy blame game that the FCT Administration is trying to play here.”
In some rhetorical statements, the spokesperson added that 90 per cent of the houses in the estate were on mortgage and financed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.
“Would the FMBN have given NHF loans to individuals to buy houses without verifying the authenticity of the land title?
“The Nigeria Police Force bought 100 units of the houses in the estate. Would they have done this without verifying the genuineness of the land title? And the commissioning of the NPF housing units was done by the then VP Namadi Sambo. Would the VP have commissioned an illegal estate?”
To avert recurrence of the flood, they made some recommendations to the FCTA that the dam in Aleita needed to be evaluated and that the channel after the estate needed to be expanded and dredged.
