The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Tuesday demolished Monkey Village, a popular settlement in the Durumi axis of the nation’s capital city
FCT director of Security Services, Mr. Adamu Gwary, told Journalists during the exercise, that the level of criminality perpetrated by the people living in the village was unacceptable. According to him, “We all know the security implications of this type of shanties, where the Monkey village is harbouring criminals. Looking at the calibre of offices, like Federal Secretariat, you can see the proximity to these shanties, and government cannot condone such illegalities. We have to ensure the government offices, residents, and other offices here are safe and secured,”
The director of the Department of Development Control, Mukhtar Galadima, also said the work was in continuation of the city sanitation that was ordered by the minister of FCT, Malam Muhammad Bello, a few months ago.
He lamented the abuse of land use in the area, like the conversion of the road corridor to a market, which according to him, was unacceptable by the government and, therefore, must be removed.
The senior special assistant to FCT Minister on Monitoring, Inspection, and Enforcement, Ikharo Attah, said the belief that the Monkey village cannot be removed was very wrong, which was why they progressed from shanties a few months ago to a full-fledged house built with cement and mud. “The land belongs to Nigerian Police and whatever they are planning for the future, they have not started using it, so the people moved in and became so notorious that this place served as criminal hideouts.
“On Monday when we cleaned the other parts, we discovered that people were packing their things into monkey village and we had to move in there and removed it. And the notorious Monkey village is history. FCDA would inform the Nigerian Police to take over their property. The FCDA has legal backing and the Police are keen to take over the property,” he stated.
