By Stanley Onyekwere
Officials of FCT Department of Development Control have defended the demolition of no fewer than eleven units of flats, comprising of three and four bedrooms belonging to estate, in App-Dutse area of Abuja.
Speaking to journalists after the exercise, Director, Department of Development Control, Tpl. Mukhtar Galadima, disclosed that the developer had ignored all notices and disregarded all communications to abide by development regulations.
He said the demolition became imperative because the estate is located under high tension, and standing in the way of an upcoming bridge planned for the area.
He, however, noted that the developers was actually allocated the plot, albeit wrongly, revealing that the developers has been offered opportunity for alternative allocation, but they are yet to accept, instead, they proceeded with the illegal development.
His words: “This is a statutorily allocated plot. They requested for approval and applied for building plan approval, which we declined for the fact that it’s in close proximity to a high-tension line, as well as a stream channel. So, we declined to grant approval, but they moved ahead to work.
“We have been serving notices, even from the excavation stage. Various stages of development, we’ve been serving notices, we even communicated to them in writing that the work should be stopped. But unfortunately, maybe considering their institution and agency, they moved on.”
Galadima also stated that Engineering Department of the FCDA, wrote to his Department on plans to construct a bridge on that particular section of the District, “So, there’s nothing we can do about this.”
Ruling out possibility of compensation for the development, the Director explained that “compensation is given to any property that has approval but then it’s being cut off by development process.”
He added that in the case of the demolished property, there was “no approval, you were asked to stop at the excavation stage, you didn’t comply, so there’s no compensation,” he insisted.
The Director also hinted at the possibility of prosecuting defaulting developers and making them pay the penalties, including cost of demolition.
