Tribunal has helped strict compliance with standards – FCTA

The FCT Urban and Regional Planning Tribunal (UBRT) said it has helped to ensure that developers comply with standards within the territory.

The department said its establishment and operations are assisting the system by ensuring that all stakeholders, departments and agencies kept to laid down planning and development guidelines and regulations.

UBRT Acting Secretary, Malam Yahaya Abubakar, said this while briefing newsmen in Abuja on the tribunal’s activities in the last two years.

Abubakar said the tribunal, being the first of its kind in the country, is becoming a resource centre for other states and schools.

He said it has received 90 complaints filed by litigants out of which 53 are ongoing.

“The tribunal was established to complement the efforts of the FCT Administration by ensuring the enforcement of extant standards and regulations of the Abuja master plan as it is expected to be the arbiter between developers and government agencies. It is to ensure that the Abuja master plan is implemented and adhered to in the best interest of all,” he said.

He called for cooperation between the tribunal and other major stakeholders, adding that by virtue of the act governing it, it is the enforcer of the planning law.

“As a quasi-judicial body, the tribunal cannot initiate proceedings on its own, it is only permitted to preside on issues filed properly by an aggrieved person,” he added.