By Stanley Onyekwere
The FCT Administration under the leadership of Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, the FCT Minister of the has ordered security forces to arrest the Federal Housing Authority officials and the developer of the two-story building in Abuja that recently collapsed, killing at least 3 persons.
In particular, the Minister issued an arrest warrant for alleged manslaughter against the developer, the FHA officers in charge of overseeing the development, the officer in charge of issuing the development permission, and the engineer supervising the development.
This move was disclosed by the Coordinator of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), Umar Shuaibu, during a press briefing at the weekend.
Shuaibu recalled that 24 people were trapped in the unfinished building that collapsed at 6th Avenue in Gwarimpa Estate, with three confirmed dead and 21 people rescued.
He added that all the surrounding developments in the area identified by the AMMC Development Control Department, that require investigation of their structural integrity, were henceforth sealed and declared out of bound by anybody, pending the outcome of integrity test presently being conducted, and if found to be faulty, they are going to be demolished by the FCT Administration, before any life is endangered.
He said: “Among the statutory responsibilities of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), is the development of the Federal Capital City and Territory, in line with the Abuja Master Plan.
“Accordingly, the entire Gwarinpa Estate, occupying the Gwarinpa II, Wupa and Bunkoro Districts of the Phase III of the City development, was allocated to the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) by the FCT Administration, to provide essentially houses and attendant services to the citizens.
“They are to develop, control and monitor, to ensure strict compliance with the Abuja Master Plan, using the land use plan as provided by the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) as a guide.
“However, this incident is suggesting that there are flagrant violations in the development guidelines of the Wupa and Bunkoro District as developed and controlled by the FHA.
“Our preliminary findings suggests that there were breaches in the location, the building plan approval, the control and the monitoring of the development by the FHA, with glaring criminal tendencies by the developer, and or his representative during the construction activities.
“Also revealed was the glaring incapacity of the FHA to handle development control in Abuja and shoulder the responsibility of sensitive operations of these nature in cases of emergencies.
“The Gwarinpa Estate is only a fraction of what constitute the entire Federal Capital City adequately managed by the FCT Administration, however, many of these unfortunate incidences were witnessed there in the past. Hence, the FCTA’s resolve to revisit that mandate ceded, in granting development permit and control to the FHA in the Gwarinpa Estate”.
