•Removes 11,705 shanty colonies
By Stanley Onyekwere
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) through the Department of Development Control (DDC), under the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), has granted approvals to 1,422 Building Plan (BP) applications out of a total number of 1,764 it received from January 2023 to date.
Also, within the period of ten months (January to October), the department generated N2,534,673,850.08 as revenue from granting development permit, which is 68.5% of its target sum of N3,700,000,000.00 for 2023.
However, a total of 11,705 shanty colonies were removed from January to date, including obstructing structures on waterways at Lugbe, Jahi and Lokogoma which has curtail the flooding experienced within the city in recent years as well as encroachment on Rights of Way and security black spots in collaboration with security agencies in the FCT.
DDC Director, Mukhtar Galadima, made the disclosure at the weekend, while briefing newsmen on the activities of the Department from January to date, as well as the measures it has taken to adopt and institutionalise the Renewed Hope Agenda of the current administration.
Galadima noted that as a result of the building plan approvals granted and other activities of the Department, a total number of 13,873 direct and indirect jobs were created at different stages of construction in the nation’s capital city.
He added that the Department in conjunction with the Ministerial Enforcement Taskforce Team has cleared shanties and illegal developments at Kabusa, Kasuwa dare, Galadimawa junction, Mabushi scavenger colony and Gudu District along Oladipo Diya way.
According to him, the Department within the period inaugurated One -Stop vetting team, to treat backlog of files as well as to facilitate the acceleration of building plan approvals for plots within areas serviced with infrastructure.
He further revealed that other achievements recorded by the Department in carrying out its statutory mandate within the period, were the inauguration of Post Development Audit pilot scheme at Dawaki; establishment of regional offices to decentralize monitoring and enforcement activities in the Area Councils and Satellite Towns; as well as inauguration of committee on the prevention of building collapse in the FCT to proffer modalities and institutional frame work to avert building collapse in the territory.
Meanwhile, the Director disclosed that despite the numerous achievements of the Department so far, there are some of the challenges impeding the efficient and effective implementation of its statutory responsibilities of the Department.
He identified the challenges to include “the increasing cases of Land grabbing, continuous harassment of staff by security agencies in the course of carrying out their statutory responsibilities, non resettlement of indigenous communities creating pockets of expanding slums throughout the city.
“Inadequate and obsolete utility vehicles for monitoring and heavy duty equipment for enforcement to cover the ever-growing territory, inadequate office accommodation.
“Slow pace adoption to ICT and non-full automation of the Departments’ activities, inadequate manpower and Low staff capacity, lack of hazard allowance for staff, slow pace of infrastructural development especially in the satellite towns, abandoned buildings serving as criminal hideouts, non completion of the Phase V Districts Landuse plan ans non utilization of land after removal of squatter settlements.”
Giving an insight into the DDC’s prospects, the Director said “The Department will ensure orderly development in line with the provisions of the Abuja Master Plan, increased tempo of development as a result of the administrations’ intolerance to land speculation, efficient process and reduction of time for granting building plan approval, increase in revenue generation of the Department, stimulate developments as a result of increase in building plan approval and generate more jobs.”
