Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has continued the demolition of shanties and illegal markets within the FCT due to the level of insecurity experienced in recent times.

Osi Braimah, Director AEPB, said this on Sunday in an interview during the ongoing demolition of all shanty stores built in a market at Area 11 popularly called (the COVID-19 market) in Abuja.

“Removal of shanties and illegal settlements in Area 11 and some parts of the city is to curb the incessant insecurity faced by residents.

“This is an ongoing exercise by various agencies of the FCT; AEPB has been given marching order by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike to scale up all shanties, illegal settlements and squatter camps in the FCT.

“We have been doing this for a long time, primarily because this scaling up will improve the city sanitation and also cater for the attendant problem of insecurity,” Mr Braimah noted.

The director said that most of the people living in the shanties were without addresses and identification and this could produce challenges regarding insecurity.

“So it is paramount we scale up and we achieve the objective set out for us by the FCT minister.

“That is why the FCT minister has asked everybody to develop his property in the FCT to avoid the erection of illegal property on empty plots.

“Before we embark on demolitions, we usually give abatement notices, we don’t just come in one day trying to remove illegal structures,” Mr Braimah noted.

He urged residents to pay their waste management bills, saying that there was a big challenge in this area.

“We render services and it is a struggle to collect money for services rendered. As I have always said in the past, paying for waste services is not a levy, it is not a tax,” the director stated.

(NAN)