The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has carried out the demolition of a section of Citiscape Villa, an estate situated in the upscale Guzape District, after uncovering multiple violations of building regulations. These violations included construction on designated green areas and illegal development on waterways.
On Monday, the operation was led by Felix Obuah, the Coordinator of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), who oversaw the enforcement team as they took action on the estate. Obuah noted that the developer of Citiscape Villa had altered protected areas, turning them into plots which were then sold to unsuspecting buyers.
“The developer turned waterways and green areas into plots and sold them to unsuspecting buyers,” Obuah stated. He further emphasized that these actions were in direct violation of the approved building plans, which had been granted for the estate.
Obuah also affirmed that the FCTA, under the leadership of Minister Nyesom Wike, would not tolerate any actions that could hinder the city’s development.
“The FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, will not allow anyone to sabotage developmental efforts in the city,” Obuah said. He warned that any government official involved in such illegal activities with developers would face penalties as per civil service regulations.
In a related statement, Mukhtar Galadima, the Director of the Department of Development Control, noted that the developer had repeatedly ignored several stop-work orders issued by the authority. Galadima added that the enforcement team had ramped up their monitoring efforts to ensure that no further violations would take place.
While the developer of Citiscape Villa, Kadiri Ogbaidi, admitted that there had been violations, he pointed to some of the issues being caused by subscribers to the estate. Ogbaidi explained that some residents had illegally built on green spaces, which were not part of the approved plans for the development.
“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,” Ogbaidi said.
Ogbaidi promised that the developer would address the violations by removing the illegal structures. “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,” he added.
