The Abuja Environmental Protection Board on Saturday cleared all illegal markets in Area 11 and the Federal Secretariat to curb the growing insecurity faced by residents.

The Director of AEPB, Mr Osi Braimah, said the government had provided places where petty trading could be done, but the traders had not complied.

“For security purposes it is not good to have the point of sale (POS) operators all over the places. We advise people to do things in designated places to forestall insecurity issues.

“For example, the POS operators have been told to move into plazas so as not to have POS canopies all over the expressways. This is even better for our people if the POS operators are in the plazas everyone will know them.

“This is an ongoing exercise by various agencies of the FCT. AEPB has been given marching order by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike to clear all shanties, illegal markets and squatter camps in the FCT,” he said.

Speaking further, Braimah said that the Federal Secretariat part used as an illegal market is a road corridor taken over by petty traders and expressed hope that the FCT administration would soon start the project to stop the return of the traders.

He appealed to people to develop their plots quickly, clean them, and use them for the purposes they are meant for and not leave them empty.

The Deputy Director Monitoring and Enforcement Department, AEPB, KaKa Bello, said the clearing was a normal routine duty carried out by the board to clean the city.

Bello said that the Area 11 market was created to help residents within the area during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that the market is a rail corridor and a “park and pay” place would soon be built to stop a reoccurrence of settlement by illegal occupants.