The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has vowed that it would demolish all illegal structures in the nation’s capital no matter how highly placed.
Acting Director FCTA Department of Development Control, Tpl Garba Kwamkur, who disclosed this Wednesday, during weekly inspection of ongoing developments across the territory, warned developers to desist from violating the Abuja Master Plan with all sorts of infractions.
Kwamkur stated that the weekly exercise became necessary owing to increased illegal development activities, as developers took advantage of the period of lockdown to put up structures, hoping that the authorities would not find out.
Speaking specifically on some of the major development abuses, Kwamkur stated that ‘stop work notice’ was served on 11 Plc to stop work on the construction of a filling station on the corridor of Bill Clinton Drive, which connects the Umaru Musa Yar ‘Adua Expressway to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
Blueprint gathered that the developer of the filling station was coming under the guise of a title document granted to the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) for the building of the entire airport facilities, claiming to have had a partnership with FAAN to build the station to service the area around the airport.
In the case of an Army Estate under construction in Idu, the development control boss revealed that Army moved into the land on the basis of an Area Council allocation and had taken up to 100 hectares of land.
Kwamkur, who said his department has written to the Army authority on the matter, was hopeful of a meeting between the two government organisations to reach an amicable resolution.
Also explaining another infraction by the military (Nigerian Navy Housing Scheme), along the Airport, Kwamkur, again stated that they got the allocation from Area Council, which had since been quashed by a past FCT Administration, insisting that any allocation with the city must be made by the FCT Minister.
The team also served a quit notice on a Fulani settlement, located off the Airforce Base, near Army Peacekeeping Operation Base on the corridor of the Bill Clinton Drive.
The Acting Director therefore warned: “The city has a master plan and it must be followed to the latter”.