Omeiza Ajayi & Favour Ulebor

The Development Control Department of the Federal Capital Territory Administration FCTA said it has demolished no fewer than 11, 705 illegal structures between January and November 2023.

This was as it said it generated over two billion naira through its various activities within the said period.

The director of the department, Mukhtar Galadima, disclosed this at an end-of-year media interface in his Wuse Zone 6 office.

According to him, the department also created over 13, 000 direct and indirect jobs and granted more than 1,000 building plan approvals within the period under review.

Specifically, he said the department achieved N2,534,673,850.08 revenue generation from January to October 2023, representing 68.5 per cent of the N3.7 billion target given to it for the year.

While he expressed optimism that his department would hit the target before December, Galadima said; “We are embarking on recovering the bills awarded so that people can pay before the end of this year so that we can meet our revenue target.”

He explained that the department received 1,765 building plan applications, and quickly processed and granted 1,422, thus facilitating the generation of 13,873 direct and indirect jobs on different construction sites across the Territory.

The Director also disclosed that, in the course of ensuring that developments in the FCT complied with provisions of the Abuja Master Plan, 11,705 illegal structures and shanty colonies were dismantled within the period.

He further explained that these achievements were possible due to measures the department put in place to facilitate timely building approvals and efficient monitoring and inspection of developments.

Some of them include the formation of a one-stop vetting team to treat the backlog of files and fast-track building plan approvals for plots in serviced areas and the establishment of regional offices to decentralize monitoring and enforcement activities in the area councils and satellite towns.

Others are the constitution of the committee on the prevention of building collapse in the FCT, which is expected to also proffer preventing modalities, including institutional framework against building collapse; as well as the creation of a post-development audit pilot scheme.

He said; “The Department in conjunction with the Ministerial Enforcement Taskforce Team has cleared shanties and illegal developments at Kabusa, Kasuwa dare, Galadimawa junction, Mabushi scavenger colony and Gudu District along Oladipo Diya way”.

On Staff Welfare, he said the Department has institutionalized end-of-year activities where it appraises itself, enhances staff bonding as well and presents awards to deserving staff to boost morale.

“We also have a monthly medical fitness check for all staff and monthly sporting activities to boost the physical fitness of staff”, he added.

Galadima however disclosed that despite the numerous achievements of the Department, some of the challenges impeding its efficient and effective implementation of its statutory responsibilities include increasing cases of land grabbing as well as continuous harassment of staff by security agencies in the course of carrying out their statutory responsibilities.

Others are “non-resettlement of indigenous communities creating pockets of expanding slums throughout the city; Inadequate and obsolete utility vehicles for monitoring and heavy-duty equipment for enforcement to cover the ever-growing territory.

“Inadequate office accommodation; Slow pace adoption to ICT and non-full automation of the Departments’ activities; Inadequate manpower and low staff capacity; Lack of hazard allowance for staff; the slow pace of infrastructural development especially in the satellite towns; abandoned buildings serving as criminal hideouts; Non-completion of the Phase V Districts Land use plan; Non-utilization of land after removal of squatter settlements”, among others.