Occupants Of Shanties Will Be Thrown Out, Poverty Not An Excuse, Wike Insists
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT, Nyesom Wike, on Monday, said that shanties in Abuja were illegal and their inhabitants would be thrown out.
Wike, who stated this during a live media chat, said that shanties defaced the cities and served as hideouts for criminals.
“When you say shanties, are shanties legal? You see, we cannot joke with the security. You have complained about insecurity, kidnapping, and ‘one-chance’. These are people who occupy all these charities.
“In fact, sometimes, they take over the corridors where the road is supposed to pass. And when you want to do road, they say, ‘compensate’. Compensate who?
“It is not correct. Mind you, criminals don’t stay where you will locate them. Criminals stay in these locations where you cannot locate them.
“We’re going to make sure that all illegal occupants of anywhere will be thrown out. It’s unfortunate. There’s nothing we can do about it because security is paramount.
“Any government that cannot provide security for citizens has no business in government. You see, we have to be careful about this poverty thing and no poverty thing,” the minister said.
Asked what the government was doing to assist residents of the FCT who live in shanties because they cannot afford to rent apartments in lawfully designated areas, he said it was not possible for the Federal Government to build houses for every Nigerian.
He also said that poverty was not an excuse.
Wike stated, “We cannot say because of poverty, we should allow you to kill people, to rob people, to kidnap people.
“That’s not allowed; it defaces the city, and that is why we have asked people who claim that this land belongs to them, or sometimes, why they are not developing the land.
“Why are you making it possible for these criminals to come and settle here and cause problems for the city?”
In March 2025, Wike ordered the demolition of houses in the right-of-way of the ongoing road construction in Gishiri, under the Katampe area of the nation’s capital.
He disclosed that a grace period of three months was given to the occupants to evacuate so that the road construction could continue, but instead of listening to them, they turned a deaf ear to their calls.
In December 2024, he defended the demolition of properties in the nation’s seat of power, saying he would not be swayed by blackmail.
Wike said the structures being demolished by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) were properties illegally built on government lands.
“Let me use this opportunity to tell Nigerians and residents of Abuja, we are not afraid of blackmail.
“In fact, you cannot be in this kind of position and say you cannot be blackmailed, particularly as regards this Abuja. There are so many land grabbers. Some of us have come to put our feet down.
“Let heaven fall. It is even better that heaven comes down now so that we would not be fasting again to go to heaven,” the minister said during the distribution of operational vehicles to security agencies at the FCTA Secretariat in Abuja.
