The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has warned that it will not take lightly anyone found tampering with any of the revoked land as approved by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
The warning came when officials of the Development Control Department, led by its Director, Muktar Galadima, busted an attempt by some owners of revoked lands in Maitama District to continue development on the sites.
The team, accompanied by security agents, confiscated building equipment found on the sites, chased away some workers and arrested some for profiling.
It would be recalled that Wike revoked no fewer than 165 plots of land in the service districts of the FCT over non-development. The revocation order placed on the affected plots, according to the minister, was due to the continuous contravention of the terms of agreements as contained in Section 28(5) (a) & (b) of the Land Use Act.
While responding to questions from journalists during the operation, Galadima disclosed that information reached his office that some owners of revoked lands were moving back to sites, which according to him, is in violation of the order.
He said, “Recently, FCTA revoked some plots for non-development, and also sent the last warning on abandoned buildings in December, 2022. So, it is unfortunate that those revoked properties, some people are trying to come back and work on them, particularly on weekends.
“So, we are on this operation to ensure that all the revoked plots, nobody goes back and works on them, and also to use this opportunity to call on the public that any revoked property that somebody is trying to work on, definitely the administration will not only remove such structure, but will ensure prosecution of the person involved.
Concerning information that some of the affected property owners might have gone to court to seek redress, he said, “I am not aware of anything like that, if at all some have gone to court as you said, then I will live it to the court to decide, but for now I am not aware of such, and even the decisions of court have to be communicated to the administration for it to study and decide if there is any need to review them or not.
