The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) said it may have no option than shut down Utako market over disturbing poor sanitation, which it noted is an open invitation to epidemic.
The City Sanitation taskforce which stormed Utako on Monday for cleaning exercise, said the market, directly managed by the Abuja Municipal Area Council ( AMAC) has degenerated to refuse dumps, risking human lives and safety.
The leader of the taskforce, Mukhtar Galadima said the market has become a ” time bomb and disaster waiting to happen”.
Galadima who is also the Director, Department of Development Control, stated that there was an urgent need to clean up the market and ensure that disaster and epidemic were averted.
Galadima who expressed displeasure that such a market located within the heart of the city could be allowed by its managers to degenerate to a place where both human and environmental safety is compromised.
While he said that urgent meeting would be convened with all stakeholders in the market, he insisted that proactive measures must be taken.
He noted that more worrisome was the fact that the market managers have illegaly allowed the market to overflow into the major streets around Utako residential areas.
According to him, the taskforce would not allow the traders occupy the streets again, because they had started vandalising and defacing the road infrastructure.
Also speaking, the Secretary of FCTA’s Command and Control Centre, Peter Olumuji said apart from the nuisances in the area, residents around the neighbourhood, have also complained of security threats surging from the market.
Olumuji equally disclosed that the market has been overtaken by idle youths and suspected hard drug addicts.
