Ebonyi State Ministry of Capital City Development has demolished a two-storey building under construction suspected to be a plaza at the Azuebonyi axis in Ebonyi local government area.
The Capital City Development commissioner, Chief Sunday Inyima, said the ministry had earlier ordered the owner of the building to stop work because it was sited on an area earmarked for double lane on the Sub Trans-Sharan Highway.
Inyima said, “The building falls into the limit area of the 45 to 50 metres from the middle of the road for the Super Highway.”
The commissioner appealed to prospective developers to get building approvals from the ministry before the commencement of any building.
“There was no approved building plan by the ministry when the development was still at the foundation level. It had not even gotten to DPC and we told the site engineer to stop work, and of course, we issued them a stop work notice and after that a stop work order.
“We further issued them a revocation order and removal order for them to remove it from the foundation. We even confiscated some of their items.
“The following month, May, they came to our office that we should give them those things we confiscated that they will not come to the site again because we told them that this road is Sub Trans Sahara Highway.
“There is a kind of limit you have to give from the middle of the road approximately 45 to 50 metres, and if you check 50 metres from the middle of this road, the whole of this building fell into it. Therefore, it was advisable for us to stop them, so we did.
“Fortunately, last week, I was going on my routine unscheduled inspection of a man building an industrial estate and to my greatest chagrin, they have not only started the building again, but the building has reached the second floor.
“I told my workers with the Head of Department (HoD) Town Planning to ask them to stop work and remove from the extent they have gone. Unfortunately, the man wants to confront the government and continued with the building day and night, including Sundays and that is how they were able to get to this extent.
“What we are trying to tell our people is that we are not in a Banana Republic, we live in a state where there is the rule of law at all levels. And this should serve as a deterrent to all other developers who may try to test the will of government to take caution before they begin any form of development.
“They have to get approval, inspection and supervision from the Ministry of Capital City Development and Urban Planning. We cannot allow this because if we do, other people will copy it and before you know it, the capital city will be turned into a slum,” he said.
