Gbenga Omokhunu, Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Sunday warned residents involved in the sale of automobiles within residential areas in Abuja, to quit or risk having them impounded.
Chairman, Ministerial Task team on City Sanitation and Traffic Management, Ikharo Attah, said the FCTA frowns at the trend, and would clampdown on it.
Attah said the warning followed the receipt of complaints from residents on the menace.
“The FCTA has made it very clear that you cannot sell cars within your residential premises as your house is not a car mart.”
“Bringing up to 50 and 70 or more cars within a a neighbourhood where you live in just a three-bedroom flat in Area 10, we will not allow that to continue. We will impound the vehicles; we will take them away because neighbours are all complaining.
“Some persons will go there and rent a flat or even a duplex, and turn the entire neighbourhood to a car mart, and they will bring as many as a hundred cars without plate numbers, with which they litter the whole streets.
“That we will not accept, so they must quit and return to the appropriate area, which is temporarily allocated along the Kubwa expressway until issues around Dakwa Auto markets are settled.”
Meanwhile, the joint task force on car marts enforcement cleared Illegal car marts and mechanic workshops on pedestrian walkways on the AA Rano filling station and AYA roundabout in Asokoro District.
They also arrested three persons and towed three cars parked on the walkways in the area.
Director of FCT Directorate of Road Traffic Services (DTRS), Wadata Bodinga, said although there is almost total compliance, for now, they want to t make sure that the compliance is a continuous one as well.
“If we say that we clear only car marts, there are other nuisances such as those selling things, having workshops within undesignated areas in the city. So we try to incorporate all those nuisances taking place. This is to ensure that all of them are stopped.”
Director of Parks and Recreation Department, Risikatu Abdulazeez, said they were putting a sort of semi-permanent measure, in the sense that they are going to invite plants nursery operators ( sellers of flowers) to occupy all the notorious places either on green verges or road buffers, to ensure these dislodged people will not return.
Not left out, Director of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Dr Hassan Abubakar, said: “This is a joint operation, we are aware of the festive period, and a lot of wastes are going to be generated alongside with all these car marts and other things. That’s why we have to sit up, and we must make sure that the city cleaned.
“We will not allow any nuisance to continue in this city, as we will be up to our responsibilities. We will make sure that we clean this city. We can do so, and we will not this to continue as the city must be cleaned.”
