Residents of Gwarinpa District in the Federal Capital Territory have raised concerns over the alleged conversion of road corridors in the area into car stands, following a recent demolition exercise that dislodged artisans from their workspaces.
The demolition, carried out last Thursday around the 3rd Avenue area, affected mechanics, carpenters, and other artisans. The residents welcomed the removal of the artisans but are now opposing reported plans to allocate the cleared land to car dealers.
Architect Fola Garba, Secretary of the Residents’ Association in the Federal Works and Housing Estate, Phase 1, commended the demolition as a step towards restoring order. However, he warned that reallocating the land to car dealers would create a greater nuisance. Garba explained that a similar situation had occurred in Phase 2 of the estate, where artisans were removed from a road corridor and the land was subsequently taken over by car dealers. He said both locations were originally reserved for the expansion of road corridors around 3rd Avenue.
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Preliminary findings by community stakeholders, according to Garba, indicated that the land had been allocated to car stand operators under the guise of temporary permits for park and recreational activities. He questioned why land earmarked for road expansion would be used for commercial vehicle displays, arguing that residents would benefit more from gardens and flowers while the land awaited future road construction.
The affected artisans had been served quit notices by the Abuja Environmental Protection Board about a month before the demolition and were allowed to remove their tools and container shops before the exercise began.
Efforts to get a response from the AEPB spokesperson, Janet Peni, were unsuccessful. The concerns raised by the residents highlight the need for transparency in the management of public land in Abuja, where road expansion, commercial activities, and community needs often compete for the same spaces.
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