The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has demolished part of Citiscape Villa, an estate located in the upscale Guzape District, for breaking building rules and constructing on waterways.
The Coordinator of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, Felix Obuah, led the enforcement team to the site on Monday.
Obuah said the developer turned waterways and green areas into plots and sold them to unsuspecting buyers.
He added that the developer clearly went against the building approval that was given.
He added, ‘The FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, will not allow anyone to sabotage developmental efforts in the city’.
He also warned that any government official found to be part of these illegal actions with the developer would be punished according to civil service rules.
Also speaking, the Director of the Department of Development Control, Mukhtar Galadima, said the developer ignored several stop-work notices served on him.
Galadima said the enforcement team has increased its monitoring activities to prevent further violations by developers.
The developer and owner of Citiscape Villa, Guzape, Kadiri Ogbaidi, admitted that the estate went against the approval from the Department of Development Control.
He blamed some of the problems on the estate’s subscribers, who he said built on green areas.
Ogbaidi said, ‘You know it is an estate, so we have approval for the entire estate. But there have been many infractions here, mostly from our subscribers, whom we are responsible for. So, we won’t deny any wrongdoing. We take responsibility.
‘We will remove every infraction here as specified by the authority. And we will take them out ourselves. We will bear the cost. So, we just appeal that the authority should allow us at least two weeks. We will start breaking them down.
‘We will take them down ourselves. We have been law-abiding, and we have never had issues with the authority before’.
