Flood: We’ll pull down houses senators, big men built on water channels – Wike

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has vowed that every structure erected on water channels across the territory will be pulled down, regardless of the status of the owner or the timing of the demolition on the political calendar.

Wike spoke against the backdrop of recent flooding in parts of Abuja.

He said the exercise would begin immediately and would not spare highly placed Nigerians, including serving lawmakers, who have built on designated water channels.

“I am going to bring those houses down. Any house that is found on the channel—water channel will go down,” he said.

The minister said the demolitions would run through the week, warning officials of the Development Control department against any attempt to shield defaulters.

“From today to Saturday, if the development control delays, let them find any excuse to run away. They cannot,” he said, adding that some of the affected property owners were senators and other influential figures. “Some of them are senators. Some of them are big men.”

Wike said he was fully prepared for the political backlash that would follow the demolitions, particularly with an election season already generating heightened political activity.

He said, “The next thing you will see campaign now, ‘Oh, why is he doing this during period of election?’ That is the next campaign you will see now. ‘Stop him! Let us finish election.’ Whether there’s election oh, there’s no election oh, all those houses will go down”.

He dismissed the idea that enforcing the master plan against violators amounted to political victimisation, insisting that the affected buildings had stood on the water channels for years under previous administrations.

“Those houses are not houses that were built last week. Those houses have been there 10 years, eight years ago,” he said, adding that the structures belonged to affluent Nigerians rather than the poor.

“All those built-up areas that were not supposed to be built up, no, not a single poor person will live there. Those houses are houses built by well-to-do Nigerians”, he stated.

On the causes of the flooding, Wike said while some of it could be attributed to natural weather patterns forecast by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency NiMet, man-made factors were also significant contributors.

He listed the blocking of water channels by developers, construction on undesignated land, failure by government officials to desilt drainages, and indiscriminate dumping of refuse by residents as key factors worsening flood incidents in the territory.

“We are in a climate change era. The kind of rains we have experienced, or we are experiencing now, we have not experienced before. But that is not that there are no man-made factors,” he said.

The minister also raised concerns over the conversion of green areas into parks, describing this as a distinct form of land abuse from the illegal building on water channels.

He said such conversions, sometimes tied to old, informal claims to land dating back decades, would no longer be tolerated. “Because something was done wrongly many years ago, and then it will not be corrected? No, we will not allow that. We won’t,” he said.

Wike said his administration had recorded significant achievements in the FCT over the past three years, citing the issuance of 26,000 Certificates of Occupancy (C of Os), a figure he said dwarfed the 7,000 issued by two previous administrations over 13 years.

He accused critics of ignoring this record to politicise the flooding instead. “The moment they saw the figures in terms of certificates of occupancy to ease businesses came out, instead of them to commend the administration, they used the issue of flood to begin to play politics,” he said.

The minister however appreciated residents who had drawn his administration’s attention to the flooding through genuine concerns, distinguishing them from those he accused of exploiting the situation for political point-scoring.

He said, “I appreciate those Nigerians who meant well by calling us to say, ‘Look, you may not have seen this. See what has happened.’ Not those who will just, after putting the video, ‘Oh, circulate this! Wike has killed Abuja!’”

The minister maintained that he would not be deterred by attempts to link the demolitions to political opposition. “I never created any flood. So, I hope now that we have started to demolish, you won’t cry to say, ‘Oh, it’s against a political opponent.’ No,” he said.