The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has decried massive return of umbrella market in Mpape community, few days after the demolition of illegal structures was relaxed in the area.

The chairman of the FCTA Ministerial Taskforce on City Sanitation, Ikharo Attah, told residents during an evaluation visit to the area on Sunday that the demolition of illegal structures in the area was still in progress.

He cautioned individuals planning to embark on construction or adjustment work to wait until the operation was over.

Mr Attah said that individuals involved in projects in Mpape must secure approval from the FCT Department of Development Control before proceeding.

He also warned that no illegal development and structure would be tolerated, saying Mpape was a theatre of the cleanup operation.

“We carried out a major clean up of shanties and illegal structures two weeks ago from the very heart of over densely populated Mpape community.

“We have not gotten to 25 per cent of the total cleanup operation we are supposed to do even as we spent the whole of last week evaluating the entirety of the work done across the city.

“Some people assumed that we were not going to resume demolition. Some even spread rumours that the task force has been disbanded by the FCT minister.

“If you look at Mpape now, the enormity of illegality that is coming up there is multidimensional.

“The mobile shanties and massive return of umbrella or canopy markets, particularly in the evening, is not good at all,” he said.

He said the task force would continue to remove all illegal structures in the area, adding that the operation would touch Berger quarry and Panteka markets by the very disturbing roadside.

“Sadly, they brought back all secondhand building materials to the road, but we are going to push them back very strongly.

“To be very candid, we have not even properly addressed the setback we experienced and have not looked at the old market because that particular one is an eyesore.

“What we saw within the week, particularly this weekend, shows that it is a bad bleeding point.

“Mpape is just beginning and we are not going to issue special notice again as we did in the past. It is an ongoing operation so there is no need for new notice.

“We told people to vacate, but many of them refused and even those that we removed their shanties have fully returned,” Mr Attah lamented.