As residents of Kubwa in the FCT begin to count their loss due to Monday's flood, they have watched in utter disbelief as the FCT Department of Building Control marked their houses for demolition.

Kubwa, a satellite town in Abuja was hard hit by flood following a torrential downpour all through Sunday night, submerging houses and vehicles and sweeping debris along the channel.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the heavy downpour resulted in the overflow of stream, which criss-crosses many parts of Kubwa town. Among areas worst ravaged by the swift flood were 32 Crescent in Phase III of the FHA Estate, Phase IV and parts of Phases 2-1, 2-2 and PW Estates in Kubwa.

A similar flood occurred in the same zones on Aug. 7, 2006, NAN recalls. On the phase III area alone, 10 blocks (20 flats) on 32 Crescent were marked by the officials who informed fear-gripped residents that their houses lay within the flood plain.

"This is double jeopardy. The FCT Minister of State has hardly visited to inspect the area with the Chairman of Bwari Area Council and the Managing Director of the FHA than this marking of buildings began," a distressed resident told NAN, pleading anonymity.

He said rather than take a critical look at the affected areas with a view to remedy any defects in the plan; the Department of Development control took a hasty decision to mark the houses for demolition.

"I am afraid the bulldozers may be rolled in very soon. This will be a double disaster for us. Where do we go to and what should we do in the circumstance? The minister had promised to set up an emergency camp for victims, but we have not seen one. There has been no assistance yet and someone is thinking of demolishing the houses," the resident cried out.

A NAN check also showed that the residents' association might be considering a court action to stop the planned demolition. According to a resident close to the leadership of the association, the flood victims are not sleeping over the emergency situation.

"We are also mounting pressure on the FHA management to take up the challenge and save our houses from the FCDA Development Control bulldozers.

"We are aware that the managing director went with two executive directors of the FHA to meet with the FCT Administration officials over the matter. But the outcome of the meeting is what I do not know for now. Nevertheless, let the FHA do the proper thing to save affected residents' property," he said.

The respondent said some serving and retired staff of the FHA occupy those houses marked for demolition while some were purchased by corporate organisations and individuals from the last sale of Federal Government's houses in Abuja.

NAN also recalls that Mr Chuka Odom, the FCT Minister of State, during his Monday's tour of the flooded areas, blamed the incident on poor planning and indiscriminate dumping of refuse into the river.

"As you can see, this problem is associated with planning and since that road level is higher than the ground level, there is no way there will be no flooding like this. We are going to re-appraise the entire settlement and see whether we can relocate these people and demolish whatever is left of this place to avoid this type of recurrence and the tragedy that might attend it in future," Odom said.