FCTA destroys luxury heritage for violating building codes

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has knocked down the Citiscape Villa parts, a high-class housing in the Guzape district in Abuja, for illegal development in waterways and green areas.

Led by the coordinator of the Metropolitan Management Board Abuja Felix Obuah, law enforcement officials carried out demolition on Monday after the developer repeatedly ignored the warning.

Obuah accuses the plantation developer to convert drainage paths and green zones illegally into a plot sold to the buyer, violating the approved building plan.

“The developer converts the water channel and green area into a plot and sells it to buyers who are not suspicious,” Obuah said. “He clearly opposed the consent of the building given.”

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He stressed that the Minister of FCT regressed Wike would not tolerate actions to damage the development of the city.

“FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, will not allow anyone to sabotage the development efforts in the city,” he said.

Obuah also warned that government officials who found involved in illegal development would face disciplinary acts.

Mukhtar Galadima, Director of the Development Control Department, said the developer ignored some of the stop-work orders before demolition.

“Developers ignore some stop-work notifications served to him,” Galadima said, added that the authorities had intensified monitoring to curb further violations.

The plantation developer, Kadiri Ogbaidi, acknowledged the violation but some blamed the population for building a limited area.

“You know this is a plantation, so we have approval for all plantations. But there are many violations here, most of our customers, which are our responsibility. So, we will not deny mistakes. We are responsible,” Ogbaidi said.

He begged for a grace period of two weeks to push for his own illegal structure.

“We will delete every violation here as determined by the authority. And we will issue it ourselves. We will bear the cost. So, we only appeal that the authority must allow us to at least two weeks. We will begin to break it up,” he said.

Ogbaidi insisted that the plantation had previously complied with regulations.

“We will bring down them ourselves. We have obeyed the law, and we have never had problems with the previous authority.”

FCTA has promised to continue the strict enforcement of unauthorized developments in the capital.

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