The Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, on Tuesday, declared the Trademore Estate area a disaster zone. and called for urgent action that would stop further damages, loss of lives and properties.
Recall that flooding had submerged no fewer than 116 houses in the estate located in Lugbe District, Abuja.
The Permanent Secretary, FCTA, Olusade Adesola, stated this on Tuesday, when he led senior FCTA officials and heads of security and paramilitary agencies domiciled in the FCT, on an assessment tour of the affected area.
He noted that the flooding incident at the estate was among the issues reviewed at the FCT monthly security committee meeting.
Expressing surprise that residents in the affected areas returned few days after the incident, he said the FCDA Executive Secretary, who chairs the task force on Flood Mitigation in FCT, the CP and other officials of the FCTA, particularly FEMA, Development Control and AEPB were now ready to go and evolve solutions that would immediately address the menace.
“We just visited Trademore to see the developmental challenges occasioned by the nature of the drainage constructed against water across the roads in the area. We have seen the need to look into this urgently,” he said.
According to him, they were quite amazed at the level of flooding that occurred there (Trademore Estate).
He said the taskforce will immediately swing into action to make recommendations on urgent issues or attention that must be given to the area.
According to him, they would look at a programme of evacuating people from those areas.
“For the rest of the year, rain predictions show that there might still be more heavy rains, which means that there could be damages and casualty. And the FCTA will do everything possible within its power to ensure that we mitigate such occurrences,” he said.