We will sue defaulting developers – FCDA DDC

The Department of Development Control under the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) has urged building developers in Abuja not to deviate from the approvals granted them.

The Deputy Director of the Head of Monitoring and Enforcement unit of the department, Garba Kwamkur, said doing so will go against the principle of the master plan in the city.

He said this to journalists during a monitoring tour around Maitama district on Friday in Abuja.

Kwamkur said most developers are coming up with structures which are outside the master plan the department has initially approved to them.

He added that the department will make sure that such defaulters are dragged to the Urban and Regional Planning Tribunal for trial and if at all they are found guilty, they will serve a jail term, which will serve as lesson to others.

“Some developers are very fond of not complying strictly with the approval granted them by the development control department. This is one of such an example, we granted an approval for two duplexes, but as you can see, the developer is building for six duplexes which are out of the initial plan,” he said.

He noted that the general implication of going against approved building plan is that the original master plan in the area is distorted, while available infrastructure, such as water, electricity, parking space are overstretched.

“If you have such a concentrated family in a place like this, it distorts the infrastructure that is available. So if you have an increase of people in a district it will as well distort the usage of facilities such as electricity, because the transformer that has been provided for the area will not be able to carry the number of residents in the district,” he added.