Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has commenced a comprehensive post-development audit of Abuja Satellite Towns, signalling the recommencement of processing and granting of building approvals in the areas.
Flagging off the exercise yesterday at Dawaki area of Abuja, Director, FCT Department of Development Control (DDC), Mukhtar Galadima, said the process aimed at enabling the department to access and grant building approval to those who had built without approvals.
Galadima stated that owners of property in satellite towns are expected to submit the requisite information for necessary action, and noted that there is a new policy in the FCT looking at the new administration direction which requires them to do whatever they can do to put things in order.
He appealed to residents to give FCTA officials maximum cooperation, because the exercise is for the benefit of all.
Galadima recalled that because of the lack of engineering design in these satellite towns, they were asked not to grant approvals to some of them, but some like Dawaki, where the exercise kicked off now have engineering design.
“What is taking place is a post-development audit of Satellite Towns. You know because of the lack of engineering design in these satellite towns, we were asked not to grant approvals to some of them. But, some like Dawaki where we are starting now to have engineering design.
“There are over 15 towns, and when you look at such towns like Gwagwalada, Kuje, Karshi, Bwari, Abaji, etc, we want to cover all the Satellite towns. So, we are commencing the post-development audit, so that those that built without approvals, we can now assess them, and grant them such approvals,” he said.
Explaining the modality for the exercise, the director said that they have drafted a format where they are going to divide these settlements into clusters, and the officers have been distributed into the clusters, as they will go out and share the format and explain it to the owners of the built property, letting them know the essence of the exercise.
