Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has received praise from Sadiya Umar Farouq, the minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management, and social development, for the precautions he took to lessen the impact of floods in Abuja.
She stated this over the weekend during a briefing on the impact of floods in several of the federation's states, stating that it takes a team effort to reduce this threat.
According to her: “For example what the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory is doing is commendable, last year we had unprecedented flooding in Abuja within the FCT but this year it is not there because of the measures he took to demolish all structures that were built on water channels. Today FCT is said to be flooded-free compared to what happened last year.
”Warnings were issued, we reached out to respective governments even citizens have roles to play. In instances where people want to build on flood plains, most of the flood was not due to the release of the Cameron Dam that we are talking about that has not been decided yet, we are experiencing this kind of flood because of structures built on waterways.
“People should also leave up to their responsibilities, citizens government and other critical stakeholders if we collectively take responsibility, flooding will be reduced to the Barest minimum”, she said.
When contacted, the Senior Special Assistance on Monitoring Inspection and Evaluation to the FCT Minister, Comrade Ikharo Attah hinted that the Minister has stated the obvious, ” if you look at this year, the FCT Minister was extremely proactive in mitigating flood and flood disasters in Abuja”.
He said:” From the onset, if you observed, we have a negative indicator that we are going to have massive flooding this year. From that point, the Minister ensure that every related Department and Agencies are put on their toes.
“The Minister set up a high-powered committee headed by the Permanent Secretary, Mr Olusade Adesola and the Executive Secretary of Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) Engr Ahmed Hadi. Other relevant departments and agencies such as AMMC, FEMA, Development Control, my office and the Abuja Environmental Protection Board(AEPB) that should go all out to ensure that the issue of flooding is not recorded in the city anywhere. The Minister said there shouldn’t be any illegal structures obstructing the ways of the water, and the Minister gave a matching order that such structures should be removed.
“Some Flood prone areas heavily hit by demolition include, Trademore estate and others along Airport Road, Gwarimpa Housing Estate and Dutse Makaranta community among others were demolished and today, we did not have any record of such.
“Whenever it rained in the city, every member of the committee is put on their toes to monitor any possible likely areas of flooding.
“Bigger credit must go to the FCT Minister, because from the onset, no one member of the committee rested, when there is a large amount of water somewhere the Minister will go there himself and insist all committee members do their jobs
“When it rains heavily, and there was flooding, we are also at peace because we took the very painful decision and steps to remove all illegal structures which are paying off today and we are getting commendation from fellow Minister believing that the FCT Minister took the right decision”, he stressed.
The annual fatal flooding at Lokogoma District city did not occur this year despite a massive downpours.