By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: The Federal Capital Territory Administration FCTA has disclosed that it is reviewing the 1979 Abuja Master Plan to accommodate new realities in the capital city, even as it attributed recurrent flooding in parts of Abuja to scavengers stealing drainage covers and ageing infrastructure that has failed to keep pace with the city’s rapid expansion.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja by Lere Olayinka, a senior aide to the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, following heavy downpour in Abuja on Saturday which led to flooding in some areas of the capital.
Olayinka said the flood witnessed last Saturday “was another reminder of the seasonal reality of a rapidly expanding city with drainage infrastructure, waste management and enforcement of planning rules not keeping pace with growth.”
He added that the situation “is also a pointer to damages being caused by scavengers who are daily stealing drainage covers, thereby exposing the drainage to refuse.”
According to him, the FCT Administration is already taking steps to address the recurring problem. “To address this, the FCT Administration is already reviewing the 1979 Abuja Master Plan to accommodate the new realities of the capital city,” he stated, adding that “drainage covers that will be impossible for scavengers to remove are also being used.”
He noted that flooding in Abuja predates the current administration, citing previous occurrences under past administrations. “Sad reality is that Abuja has been witnessing floods long before Wike assumed office,” he said, recalling that in 2019, heavy rainfall flooded sections of Wuse, Jabi and Lokogoma, while in 2022 the same pattern returned, with Lokogoma district, Efab Estate, Gudu axis and connecting bridges overwhelmed.
Olayinka’s statement was also a response to criticisms from an Abuja-based lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, who had linked the Saturday flooding to the Wike administration.
“When there was flood in Abuja in 2019, as reported in the media, was it Wike that caused it?”, Olayinka asked.
Describing the lawyer as an “Online Baseless Lawyer who is always looking for attention,” Olayinka accused him of “shouting Wike has destroyed Abuja since yesterday, as if last Saturday was the first time some areas in Abuja got flooded,” and alleged that Adeyanju was being joined by “those who for once, felt they have found something negative to say about Wike.”
He further recalled Adeyanju’s past defence of a land use contravention, saying, “this same Deji Adeyanju, was the one who climbed the rooftop to defend someone who built a School and Church on a land granted to her for recreation purpose then. He saw nothing wrong in collecting money to defend someone who contravened land use purpose.”
Olayinka also took a swipe at the lawyer’s credentials, saying, “But can an Online Baseless Lawyer, who studied late-night understand this? I don’t think so.”
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