The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has threatened to go beyond the demolition of illegal and abandoned properties in Abuja to prosecute owners of such buildings.
Director, Department of Development Control, Muktar Galadima, gave the hint yesterday in Abuja during a clean-up exercise.
Addressing journalists after a series of enforcements in locations such as Asokoro and Maitama, Galadima revealed plans by the Administration to sustain the clean-up exercise until all the dark spots in the territory are cleared.
He said, “The FCTA will pay more attention to all those dark spots that we believe constitute security threats as well as constitute hygiene problems.
“The clean-up is a continuous exercise because you will agree with me that there’s a lot of negativity associated with abandoned houses in Abuja. So, now we want to clear that impression. We want to sanitise the city, we want to clean the city to make it the capital city of our dream.
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“After that, we’ll come back to the issue of monthly sanitation. For now, we’ve been to Kabusa junction, we’ve been to Galadimawa runabout, Sun City, and Ring Road 2 corridor.
“So, we’re going all around the city. We’ll go back to Ruga, once we clear, we will arrest owners of such structures and those violating the master plan.”
Earlier, the enforcement team led by the Director of Development Control had stormed a highbrow area of Asokoro, to demolish a building that was purportedly constructed in violation of approval issued for the building, but for the timely intervention by the owners who presented a court judgement barring the FCTA from removing the structure.
Before the intervention, the fence and the gatehouse had already been demolished.
Reacting to the court judgement presented to the enforcement team, the Director of Development Control, Muktar Galadima, explained that the owners were given adequate notice and did not respond, but that he would consult the Legal Secretariat for appropriate guidance on the next line of action.
He said that aside from building in contravention of the approval given, the structure had been abandoned for a long time and was now used as a haven for criminals, which the administration strongly frowned against.
“The building is an abandoned building harbouring criminals. You’ll recall that towards the end of the last administration, the former minister was there because of the same reason. So, we served them notice for removal.
“That’s why recently, the new minister has also embarked on dealing with abandoned structures. So that’s why we moved in to remove that structure to give way but then as you noticed, while the operation was going on, the owners of the property came up with a court judgement indicating that the FCT administration should not temper with that particular property.
“By the time you go around that particular building, you will see a lot of markings. This means that there were adequate notices to the owners of the structure. As responsible citizen, I have to stop the action and consult with the Legal Secretariat of the FCT about the court judgement to know if there was any appeal made.
