House owners kick as FCTA demolishes houses in Lokogoma
Officials of the Development Control Department of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council have begun the demolition of houses on waterways in EFAB Estate, Lokogoma.
The demolition started at about 2 pm yesterday and more than five houses including two churches in the estate would be affected.
The chairman of the EFAB Lokogoma Landlords’ Forum, Alhaji Shetimma Gana Mohammed said the demolition contravenes an earlier agreement with the FCT Administration. He said the government had promised to verify building approvals to ascertain if the offtakers or developers contravene building regulations.
“If the FCTA said those houses don’t have approvals, why should the developer sell the houses to the off-takers? Some of the owners bought the houses in trust, they are civil servants while some have retired to the village,” he said.
He described the demolition as unfortunate adding that it could have been avoided if the developer had done proper channelization of water instead of the developer describing flooding in the estate as a natural disaster.
An official of the agency, at the scene of demolition said houses already marked for demolition within 20 metres from the waterways would be demolished.
Some affected residents were seen removing fittings and valuables from their houses when the bulldozer and pall loader of the agency got to the estate.
The director, Development Control of the FCTA, Muktar Galadima said the authority embarked on the demolition as a proactive measure to save lives.
“Something is already bad and we were there to salvage the situation. We have been telling them to come with their approvals. We have been shouting that if they have valid title documents, they should bring it so that we can value their property and compensate them,” he said adding that the government had to “save lives before we talk about verification.”