Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has threatened to demolish houses built by those he called “unscrupulous developers” without appropriate permission, no matter how highly placed the owners are.
“There are certain investors, unscrupulous persons who decide, especially on the fringes of the city, to build without permission, to build on unallocated land, to build with impunity and to spend enormous amount of resources on fraudulent allocations or non at all and without building permits.
“You must probably have noticed that over the last few weeks, we have been demolishing. and we will continue to demolish them.”
The Minister, who spoke yesterday, December 3, when he commissioned the 5 storey office complex of the Abuja Property Development Company(APDC) located at Plot 1329, Peace Drive, Central Business District, Abuja, also warned that going forward, any investor or developer that attacks staff of the FCTA in the course of their duties will be brought up on criminal charges and duly prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
“We want to develop the city but the city has to be developed in an organized manner, just like it is done in all parts of the world.”
The minister added that the Administration is working closely with the Real estate development Association of Nigeria (REDAN), the National Assembly as well as the EFCC and ICPC because a number of the
identified offending properties were purchased with ill-gotten funds and the properties are used to launder such funds.
He said all such sharp practices would no longer be accepted even as he made it clear that staff of the FCTA who signed off on and allowed illegal buildings to be developed will also be punished.
“For every property that is allowed to stand and an official
somewhere has not done his or her work, we will not spare those officials as well because at the end of the day, it is the off-takers that lose out.
He also advised off-takers or other investors who wish to purchase any property to do their due diligence and ensure that the properties they are interested in are genuine and the developer is genuine.
He however assured genuine developers and
investors that their properties will not be touched as long as such properties are erected on genuinely allocated land with the proper documents, adding that they should also procure the services of solicitors for legal guidance and advice before concluding any purchase.
