FCTA pulls down over 137 illegal hostles, hotels, others in Iddo Sarki

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has demolished over 137 illegal hostle blocks, hotels and other buildings at Iddo Sarki, on Airport road, Abuja.

Chairman, Ministerial Committee on City Sanitation, Mr. Ikharo Attah, who led the team, said the action was in line with the ministerial directive to remove every contraventions and illegality within the nation’s capital. 

According to him, the FCT minister has avowed commitment to espousing investment in the city, but would not tolerate illegalities and disobedience to the provisions of the Land Use Act. 

“The FCTA is pained about what is going on here. FCT minister had briefed the Directors of Development Control, security services and DRTS, and had given us a matching order to stop what he termed as extreme illegality here.

“These people were taken advantage of the closeness of the University of Abuja to sell every available land here. You can imagine that someone here had built a house that run into hundreds of millions of naira, without a proper approval, but just based on ordinary agreement signed with the Chief on foolscap sheet, that for me is an aberration. 

“No one here has any allocation. It is very sad and worrisome that Abuja is going this way. What the natives are telling people here is that if you buy land and build, before Development Control will come, you would have recovered your money.

“The minister has ordered that this place be cleared as a signal to people. Those who wants to build hostles for students can approach the administration and the University management and do it on Building Operate and Transfer (BOT) or Build, Operate and Own (BOO) arrangements with a proper allocation and development approval from government.

“The Chiefs have denied that they never sold any land, while the buyers who insist they bought the land from the chiefs are now lamenting. We asked them to produce papers of approval, but none of them have done that. They said they bought the land between N2 million and N7 million. 

“We have done this, because we have the mandate to secure the city within the context of the Land Use Act.” He insisted.

Also speaking, the acting Director of DDC, Garba Kwakur, disclosed that the land in which the illegal development was going on had been allocated to the Nigerian Navy. 

“We have come here several times and sensitised them to stop this illegal development, FCT administration is not very happy with what is going on here.

“We have marked the illegal buildings several times, and they were cleaned off. We have met with the Chiefs and youth leaders on the need to get permit before any expansion, but they have not done that,” Kwakur stated.

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