Disquiet in Abuja over Asokoro Gardens status
Mr Said Khalaf, a Lebanese businessman in Nigeria, is the chairman of Setraco Group. His company was constructing the Abuja-Keffi expressway when he saw the Kugbo hills and the dream of erecting high rise buildings on top of them came to his mind, according to Sami Abou Jaoude, the Managing Director, Sunrise Estate Development (SED) […]
Mr Said Khalaf, a Lebanese businessman in Nigeria, is the chairman of Setraco Group. His company was constructing the Abuja-Keffi expressway when he saw the Kugbo hills and the dream of erecting high rise buildings on top of them came to his mind, according to Sami Abou Jaoude, the Managing Director, Sunrise Estate Development (SED) Ltd, a sister company to Setraco Nigeria Limited.
Subsequently, the entire Kugbo District, adjoining Asokoro, an expanse of land totaling 674hectres, was allocated to Mr Khalaf for mixed use development.
As you approach Asokoro District today, you will notice four units of domineering high rise buildings nearing completion perched on a hill sticking out like dangling axes. That is Asokoro Gardens being constructed by SED.
“This is an unprecedented in the history of allocation of land in the Federal Capital Territory since its creation in 1976,” said a top FCDA official who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
From the surface, one would have thought that this investment is a laudable effort, promoting the general development of the city. Not until you look into the Abuja Master Plan and several reports of consultants and the Development Control Manual which guides the legal and physical development of the capital city.
Various stakeholders who spoke to Daily Trust in confidence for fear of drawing the wrath of FCT authorities faulted the development, saying it is “illegal allocation and a flagrant violation of the Abuja Master Plan.”
Beginning of the problem
A former FCT Minister issued two titles: Plot Nos. 3908 and 4079 to SED. But rather than confine itself to the development of its 674 hectares district, SED annexed two other large open spaces: a green area and flood plain outside the Kugbo District, an approximate size of 25 hectares.
An analysis of the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS) map shows that plot 3908 in its entirety is a flood plain while plot 4079 in its entirety is an unclassified green area. One of the stakeholders at the receiving end of the whole saga is Royal Niger Properties Ltd., a Nigerian property development company that owns plot 517 adjoining the plots.
In 2008, it applied to the FCT minister and commenced the creation of private park by seeking approval in accordance with the land use of the area. But its application was ignored; instead, the minister allocated not just part of but the entire 25hectares of the green area and the flood plain to SED leaving not even one square meter unallocated.
Daily Trust was told that when the Corporate Affairs Director of SETRACO Mr Jack Farah was contacted by the Chief Executive Officer of Royal Niger Properties, Alhaji Hussaini Abdurahman he (Farah) boasted that the FCT minister is the chairman of SED Ltd so he (the minister) is in the know of what is happening.
Farah was asked whether he knew that the two titles they hold: Plots Nos 3908 and 4079 were illegal because the law does not allow land allocation for residential development on land designated Green Areas and Flood Plains. Evading the question, he replied that the design of their residential housing also has some green areas within it, Daily Trust gathered.
Impunity unlimited
Like Farah boasted, the four letters addressed to various FCT ministers from January 2008 to date by the Royal Niger Properties were never replied despite being officially received. The various directors of Urban and Regional Planning, Federal Capital Development Authority and Development Control except the one who recommended the green area and flood plain to be allocated for estate development, admitted that the allocation is in contravention of the Abuja Master Plan, our reporters gathered. The FCT officials “advised” Royal Niger Properties to “try to convince” the FCT minister to reverse the decision as they could not “bell the cat”.
Worried by this, those affected by the encroachment wrote a petition to authorities, where they asked some pertinent questions thus: “Can a minister of FCT legally allocate land designated as green area in the FCT master plan for a purpose not permitted by law?
“Is any incumbent FCT Minister not bound to respect the existing Master Plan or are his powers above acting within its provisions subject to the official due process of reviewing the Master Plan?
“Is the FCT Minister or any other public servant subject to the FCT Act and the Development Control Manual made pursuant thereto or is he above it?
“Is land allocated in contravention of due processes established by FCT law valid or null and void ab- initio?”
What the law says
The FCT current Development Control Manual which lasts for 10 years, and is due for review in 2017, says on page 5 that “No construction shall be permitted in designated green areas”. Page 8 of the manual further provides that “Within the FCT open space there will be a resistance against permitting construction of new buildings or the change of use of land or buildings for purposes other than: agriculture or forestry; predominantly open air recreation; nature conservation; cemeteries and other uses which would maintain the open character or visual amenities of metropolitan open space.”
On page 9, the manual states: “The Department will protect land that forms part of the FCT’s green trails as defined in the master plan and promote it as a recreational resource and visual amenity in conjunction with the other parts of the green trails in the FCT.
“The department will take appropriate action on the greenery to conserve and enhance the landscape to promote nature conservation and to ensure suitable screening and landscaping for built development.
“In determining applications the Department of Development Control will consider the extent to which the proposal is compatible with character of the surrounding areas will not prejudice the environment of adjacent property or adversely affect the street by reason of its scale, height, layout, elevation treatment, materials and intensity of development especially if it is a development which significantly, exceeds the length of its surroundings or is located on a prominent skyline ridge.”
The petitioners argued that “the Department of Development Control Director (the chief custodian and constable of the Abuja Master Plan) vested with the responsibility for ensuring that even if a minister wrongly allocated a green area land for the wrong land use (for private estate development as in this case) expected to trigger off the processes of the Development Control Manual Plan and unequivocally notify the minister that it is illegal to do so and ensure that the green area and open spaces are neither stolen nor converted to other illegal uses failed woefully to do so under the pretext that he will be going against his boss’s orders.
“In this case, all the provisions of the law relating to green areas were flagrantly violated. All the procedures provided by law for change of land use and density which requires holding a stakeholders meeting to obtain the consent of stakeholders within 100 meters of the two illegal plots and developments were avoided.”
The stakeholders said the whole of Asokoro is a low density area as indicated by the various land use maps, most building permits allow only one suspended floor design. “How did a Lebanese company come to get approval to develop five suspended floors on a hill invading the privacy of adjoining residents despite the laws quoted above which guarantee that that will not be done? They quried.
On change of land use and/or density, our reporters observed that the relevant sections of the Development Control Manual (DC.REG41-46) were observed in the breach. The constitutional and legal rights to privacy of adjoining residents have been violated.
“The experience of residents since the commencement of the Asokoro Gardens developments has proved without doubt that the project will lead to human and ecological disaster as landslides and floods have already affected some residences adjoining the developments,” they observed.
This impunity, the petitioners said, is continuing unabated despite warning by government-commissioned consultants that at least 33 percent of the original open spaces and green areas of the FCT have been lost and converted to illegal land uses.
They also alleged that the most recent land use maps emanating from FCT external consultants have started “illegally altering and tweaking land use maps contained in the Abuja Master Plan to read what the perpetrators of these encroachments wish they would have been without the due processes established by law for such alteration.”
In one of such maps, the flood plain and green areas indicated in the original land use map have been “changed to a color code describing the encroachments as ‘undeveloped land, flood plain and steep land’ trying desperately but unsuccessfully to cast some ambiguity on whether indeed the 25 hectares of Asokoro land were originally green areas and flood plains.
“The stakes in this encroachment are very high because land within the vicinity of Asokoro and therefore Sunrise Estate Development Ltd’s Asokoro Gardens now costs as much as N100,000 per square metre for serviced plots; meaning that a buyer would pay as much as N100million for a 1000 square metre parcel of serviced land. This means the value of the 25 hectares of green area and flood plain by today’s standard is up to N25 billion,” the stakeholders said.
The stakeholders wonder how Setraco/SED, one of the biggest beneficiaries of infrastructure contracts in FCT, will claim ignorance on green areas/flood plains, having being employing experts as surveyors, town planners and engineers. “The truth is that, they have taken us for granted,” they said.
‘Asokoro Gardens is legal’
The Director of Development Control, Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) Yahya Yusuf said the FCT master plan is subject to review so the public should not hold onto what they knew of the document five, 10 years ago. He said the company bore the cost of doing infrastructure in Asokoro including the construction of the Mogadishu cantonment overhead bridge so it might find ways of recouping its investments.
‘There is no encroachment’
In his reaction, the Managing Director of SED, Sami Abou Jaoude said, “We’re following the land use. We have construction permit – because you can’t carry on without the licence. I don’t know what concerns they [stakeholders] have – as a matter of privacy, many people can see many buildings next to each other. I don’t see the concern. I can’t see how this can intrude in privacy of the neighbour. Everywhere in Abuja they have some buildings going on so I don’t see why this issue has been brought up.”
He said, “Asokoro is medium density. Apart from the land use and to get the approval for the land use – we’re not building something outside the approved land use.” He said no complaint has reached him. “It’s hear say, no official complaint because all our documents are legal. We also have environmental impact assessment, the land use for the project – we have not changed the land use at all.”
On why the company is building many floors not known in Asokoro, he said they have not gone against the rules adding that “The market here is that land in Abuja is not abundant – you don’t find much land.”
On the encroachment question, he said, “I can show you that they have many encroachments on us. There’re three buffer zones they have encroached on. It’s quite the opposite that they’ve been encroaching on us rather than us…We don’t need to encroach. We’ve been very careful.”
Reacting to the claim that FCT minister is SED chairman, the Special Assistant on Media to FCT Minister Bala Muhammed, Mr Nosike Ogbuenyi said, “There’s nothing like that.” He refused to speak further on the matter.