By Laide Akinboade 

Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC) said it has concluded plans to prosecute those abusing proliferation of nefarious activities within recreational parks in the nation’s capital city.

The Council therefore resolved to embark on intensifying enforcement to address all infractions on approved land use especially noise pollution and all sorts of illegal activities around parks and gardens in the Territory.

To this end, AMMC officials last week commenced comprehensive tour and marking of activities and structures within parks and gardens in the nation’s capital city.

The AMMC team led by its Director of Administration and Finance (DAF), Mallam Suleiman Abdurameed and other heads of departments such as; Parks and Recreation, Development Control, Urban and Regional Planning, visited the busy Millennium park in Maitama, Surich Park and Covenant Park in Wuse Zone 6.

Also, the team visited Peka Parks and Garden, Wuse Zone 3 and Unique World Guarden, Wuse Zone 5, respectively, during which abatement and removal notices were served on operators of activities outside of approved for gardens.

Speaking with newsmen during the exercise, Mallam Abdurameed, who is overseeing the affairs of AMMC, said the assessment and warning tour followed a directive by the FCT Minister, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello, as the FCT Administration will not condone the infractions any longer.

He decried increasing illegal structures and activities within approved FCT Parks and Gardens, as they are not in conformity with their original land use plan.

According to him, this time around, the Council through its relevant departments will not only stop and remove operators of illegal activities within designated Parks and Gardens, but prosecute them to serve as deterrent to others.

“For instance, this place is supposed to be a garden, the other part there is supposed to be a residential area . They have converted it to entertainment spot.

“You can see loudspeakers everywhere, booming loudspeakers and there is always music in the night depriving the residents in this area from having a good night rest and so on. So, the minister has directed that FCT Administration will not condone this type of behaviours any longer.

“They had notices before that they should revert to original land use. We are just coming round now, taking the final stock of what is happening here, we are definitely not going to allow this to happen.

“So, we are coming round/ again to remark and we are telling them (Parks operators) to revert to the original land use for which these places are meant for,” he stressed.

However, when pressed to disclose timeframe for actual removal exercise, the AMMC boss said: “We are not giving any definite time. We have to come and enforce them to reverse back to original land use.

“We have our plans, to make sure that these places are developed to their original use. And I cannot come to a place and start disclosing our strategy for somebody to pick up and start to sabotage.”