The Development Control Department of the Federal Caputal Territory Administration (FCTA), yesterday, demolished 12 units of newly completed multi-million naira shops on Plot 1127 Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent.
Speaking to journalists during the exercise, the public relations officer of the department, Mr Kalu Emetu, said the structure was removed because it was illegally constructed without any approval.
Emetu said the shops which were said to have been developed by an estate developer, Sharon Properties, was marked as a residential plot on the Abuja Master Plan but was converted to commercial use by the developer despite several notices of stop work and quit notices by the department.
He said: “This is part of the enforcement exercise of the department conducts. Our field workers noticed last week that this place has turned to be a shop. When it was marked, they cleaned off the marking, went ahead with construction not minding whether it had approval or not.”
According to him, “The next line of action was to search whether there’s any submission to this and we discovered that they made a submission since 2007 and that time this place was being used as a clinic. What we normally tell people is submission is different from approval. It is the beginning of process. Mere submission does not mean you have approval.
“Above all, this place is not a commercial plot, it is a residential plot. A situation someone just came put up shop is an illegality. The conversion of a plot from original use, we don’t take it lightly, it would look as if we are condoning illegality.”
An affected tenant, Aminu Zamfara who claimed he paid a sum of N5 million for two years to occupy a shop among those demolished lamented that the developers deceived unsuspecting tenants into paying for the shops despite not having approval from the appropriate authority.
Another tenant, Ikechukwu Eze, said he paid N11.9 million for two shops which he said were being planned to be used for wine business.
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