Abuja Master plan: FCTA halts developments in AMAC community

By Stanley Onyekwere

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has disclosed the suspension of all ongoing developments in Lugbe District and processing and issuance of building plan approval for the district, a community situated within the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).
This, according to the administration, became necessary due to the ongoing harmonisation of developments in the district, in line with the Abuja Master Plan.
Director, Department of Development Control, Mukhtar Galadima, made this disclosure in a statement signed by and made available to Peoplesdaily.
Galadima, who decried that the current state of illegal developments in Lugbe, revealing that there was myriad of contraventions, including arbitrary change of land use, among others, which must be corrected.
The statement reads: “The department of Development Control, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, is not granting building plan approval for developments in Lugbe, due to the ongoing harmonisation exercise of the District, in line with the Abuja Master Plan.
“Consequently, any developer found to be developing any property within Lugbe District without the requisite building approvals from the department is doing so at his/her own risk as the department will enforce appropriate sanctions in accordance with the provisions of the law, including demolition of such illegal properties.”
It adds that the public should be “guided and ensure compliance, in order to avoid relevant sanctions”.
The statement also advised developers to stop illegal conversion of approved buildings to other uses, especially from residential into commercial use, even as it ordered defaulters to immediately revert such abuses or face demolition.
Also speaking on the development via telephone interview, Director of Planning, Hajiya Zalihau Ahmed who spoke on completion date of the harmonisation process, explained that they were in the second stage of the exercise having completed the first stage.
She further disclosed that many factors were responsible for completion of a project, including payment, which she decried was hampered by COVID-19.
Corroborating Galadima’s position on ongoing developments, Ahmed warned developers in the area to stop work because the Federal Government has already designated Lugbe District as a “planning area.”