The residents of Trademore Estate, located in the Lugbe area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have appealed to the FCT Administration to rescind its planned demolition of the estate.

The chairman of the residents, Adewale Adeleke, made the appeal in a news conference on Monday in Abuja.

A heavy downpour on June 23 submerged 116 houses in the estate.

The development led to the declaration of the estate as a “disaster zone” by the FCTA Permanent Secretary, Mr Olusade Adesola, on June 27. Mr Adesola had promised that the FCT administration would address the problem.

On Saturday, Shehu Ahmed, the Executive secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), announced the decision to demolish all structures on waterways across the nation’s capital.

Mr Ahmed said buildings within the estate were marked for demolition several times, alongside a series of warnings and quit notices for the residents to vacate. He disclosed that a police station, alongside other buildings in the estate, would be demolished.

However, the Trademore Estate chair told journalists that demolition would not solve the flooding problem.

If executed, Mr Adeleke said the proposed demolition would create humanitarian problems, increasing the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the FCT.

“Rather than bring down houses in the estate, Aleita Dam should be evacuated, while the three culverts from the ecological road after Trademore should be expanded,” he suggested. “The water channel after the estate should also be expanded to accommodate more volume of water.”

The chairman explained that the estate was built in 2007 when Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) was in charge of land allocation.

He added that the estate developer, Trademore Holdings Ltd., got the necessary allocation papers and approval from AMAC accordingly. Mr Adeleke also mentioned that when the FCTA took over, the developer went for recertification as directed by the administration, adding that no allottee on airport road has been recertified.

He said that 90 per cent of the houses in the estate were duly mortgaged and financed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.

“As such, Trademore Estate is not illegal, and it is not a disaster zone. What we need is the implementation of the recommended solutions to the flooding,” Mr Adeleke stressed.

(NAN)