Flooding: Erring Developers To Bear Demolition Cost In FCT

Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has said developers found guilty of violating the land use will bear the cost of demolishing their properties.

The FCTA also said it would soon implement environmental laws which stipulate financial penalties on offenders.

The coordinator of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), Shuaibu Umar, who made this known at a press briefing over the weekend, said the measure had become necessary following the numerous abuses of building regulations as well as town planning violations.

Umar, who also blamed erring developers for the flooding witnessed in Abuja in recent times, pointed out that most of the disasters were caused by buildings erected on flood plains.

The AMMC coordinator said when implemented, the development would save the government huge cost of logistics and also serve as a deterrent to recalcitrant developers.

“We have a provision in the Urban and Regional Planning Law as well as provisions in the environmental law that establish the Abuja Environmental Protection Board which allows for prosecution of developers that violate building requirements and regulations.”

“The law empowers us to enforce, demolish and prosecute. The law also allows us to charge erring developers to reimburse the authority for all the expenses spent during that demolition.

“So, we are going to commence implementation of this law. Any developer found guilty of violating land use of any area, we demolish, prosecute and make sure he reimburses our enforcement. In a situation where public infrastructure like bridges or roads is destroyed, we will also charge the developer to pay for whatever he may have destroyed in the course of a violation of our regulation,” he said.

On the pace of demolition across the FCT in recent times, the coordinator said the government cannot afford watch people putting their lives and those of others at risk.

“We are not demolishing because we want to, we are demolishing because we have to protect people’s lives. If people do not value their lives, we have the responsibility to protect them,” he said.

He said the FCT Administration through its relevant agencies has played its part in ensuring that the city’s land use is adhered to in all neighbourhoods.