Lawrence Bajah – Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has alerted residents on the proliferation of illegal housing estates and other developments along Idu Train Station, Apo Tapi and Lugbe areas within the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).
To this end, the FCTA through the Department of Development Control (DDC) said it has already served all relevant notices and has marked the structures, which at the appropriate time, its officials are going to embark on a massive removal exercise.
Making this disclosure during a press briefing on Friday, DDC Director, Mukhtar Galadima, said the alarm became necessary, due to the rising adverts on social media by land grabbers and illegal developers of housing estates.
Galadima explained that these areas have not yet been detailed with design layout, but people are carrying fake title documents that it is been allocated by AMAC.
He added that it is against the development rules and regulations for somebody while in the course of implementing his or her plan to change it without recourse to seeking approval for a modified plan.
He noted that with the constitution of the FCT Urban and Planning Tribunal, land grabbing and other menaces will be reduced, as there would be prosecution of defaulters.
He also revealed that developers of illegal structures and land grabbers will be made to pay for the cost of demolition and afterwards be handed over to Police for diligent prosecution.
According to him: “Our attention has been drawn to some areas of the city where people are developing without any title developments. And we want to educate the public and inform them that some of these adverts are on illegal developments.
“As the department of Development Control in FCT, we found it expedient to adequately inform the citizens on the need to secure building plans and approval, to enable them to develop in line with what is being approved.
“We know that in the course of implementing development proposals, there are rooms for modifications, adjustments and the wisest thing to do is to resubmit the design and seek approval before changing any aspect of the approved plan, failure to do so is an apparition of what was really approved for the developer.
“But, I would like to reiterate that all illegal developments along the Idu Train Station, Apo Tapi and Lugbe Areas, where people are busy spending money, and unsuspecting Nigerians are subscribing to these housing estates, we are saying now these are illegal developments, and we have served all relevant notices, so at an appropriate time, we are going to remove them.”