FCT begins demolition of structures that fail integrity test

…warns developers violating building plans FCT authorities will from next week begin the demolition of structures that violate building plans or fail integrity test. This is part of measures to mitigate building collapse in the Federal Capital Territory, an official said. The exercise will be carried out by the The Department of Development Control  of […]

• …warns developers violating building plans

FCT authorities will from next week begin the demolition of structures that violate building plans or fail integrity test.

This is part of measures to mitigate building collapse in the Federal Capital Territory, an official said.

The exercise will be carried out by the The Department of Development Control  of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC).

The first structure to be pulled down is an abandoned uncompleted one-storey building located on Nile Street in Maitama District of the city.

The Department of Development Control said it would demolish the building in a week’s time for reportedly failing integrity test.

Already, some buildings under construction also in Maitama District have been brought down for alleged illegal development and deviation from approved building plan.

The director, Development Control Murktar Galadima, who led top management team on inspection and enforcement exercise around the Federal Capital City recently, said there was no remedial measure that could have been taken by anyone to safeguard the abandoned building.

He said that resulted in the decision to remove the structure within a week in order to avert a looming disaster.

He explained that the department engaged a consultant, to carry out the integrity test on the building, and that he reported that it failed integrity test, and posed serious danger to people living and doing business within the premises.

Galadima, therefore, called on all property developers in the FCT to always comply with the provisions of the city’s development plan, adding that any developer that violated the approved building plans would be penalized.

On whether there have been enough engagement and notification about the planned removal of the building, he said, “we have done that, because after marking the structure, we even informed them verbally about the development and measures to avert the looming disaster.”

“From the visual sighting, you can see that this building cannot stand the test of time. So within a week’s time we will remove the structure,” he said.

Our correspondent reports that during the exercise, the officials visited and pulled down sections of some buildings under construction also in Maitama District for alleged illegal development and deviation from building plan approvals  granted to the developers without recourse to the Development Control office for review.

Also, the city managers inspected developments within Lokogoma and Galadimawa District, of the FCT where they observed several distortions, which resulted in the automatic withdrawal of allocation to an estate developer.

The coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), Umar Shuaibu, who also spoke with Daily Trust said it is the responsibility of the Department of Development Control to approve all proposed developments.

“When you are given a land, you are not to develop the land the way you want it because all lands in Abuja have their individual requirements such as commercial, residential or recreational purposes which all have their building requirements,” he said.

Shuaibu added that residential land, for example, is divided into low, medium and high density requirements, adding that low density residential requirement shouldn’t be more than two floors and two families while middle density shouldn’t be more than six families.

He said high density should not be more than eight families but that some of the developers violate the rules after they obtain building approval plans.

“Most of these buildings that collapse do not follow the procedures and rules that govern the development,” he said.

He further stated that the mandate of the Department of Development Control is to make sure that if one is allocated a piece of land in Abuja, he developed it according to the building type of that particular plot because while a plot will have a requirement of just two floors for example another plot could have a requirement of 12 floors.

“If you are given building approval to develop a plot, the department is going to see to the fact that the developer follows the rules according to the building approval and if he does otherwise, the enforcement unit of the department will make sure that he follows the appropriate approval.

“If the developer refuses to follow that correction, that will eventually lead to demolition and removal of the structure before disaster occurs because the city cannot be organized and made beautiful if we allow people to develop the way they want,” he added.