Mpape: ‘Why some property owners won’t be compensated’

Residents of Mpape whose property are on the corridor of the road you want to construct said you didn’t communicate government’s plan to them. You suddenly stormed their properties with large number of security men then marked houses for demolition. First, it’s not this department that did that. But you must understand that of recent, […]

Residents of Mpape whose property are on the corridor of the road you want to construct said you didn’t communicate government’s plan to them. You suddenly stormed their properties with large number of security men then marked houses for demolition.

First, it’s not this department that did that. But you must understand that of recent, they’re doing these markings. There’s normally a lot of hostilities from the affected property owners. Police officers that accompanied the team that did those markings were there just to protect the officers, not to molest anybody. On several occasions, when they go to mark properties, the officers from the Control Department are always molested.

Why didn’t you hold a meeting with them to intimate them of this before taking that action?
It wasn’t this department that did that. But what should be understood is, when you’re to mark properties, you don’t know the exact alignment until you get to the site. So they went with engineering surveyors to be able to establish the alignment of the road. They did that alignment and came back.
Subsequently, the Department of Resettlement and Compensation, having determined the alignment, now interfaced with the affected persons. That was why we gave them letters to explain to them the purpose or why we were coming for valuation for compensation.There was no intention to traumatize them. Of course, for you to determine the alignment of a road, you must do that physically. That was why the Development of Control marked the properties—for the alignment of the road with the view to determining the corridor. It’s only after that that we can go tell persons that “your property is affected by so so project and we’ll come to do assessment which is what we did by the letters the Department of Resettlement and Compensation served the affected property owners.
Are you aware of the court injunction restraining you from taking any action(s) that might lead to removal of properties there?
We’re not aware of any court injunction but we have been interfacing with the affected persons and we’ve explained to them what our intentions are and actually, we’ve been receiving their cooperation because the road project is all for the public good.
We’ve gone to all the occupants in Mpape and all those along the entire corridor including those in Nasarawa.
How many houses are affected?
We don’t have the full data. That’s why we’re in the field. It’s only after we might have finished our assignment that we can tell the number of houses that are affected. That was why that corridor had to be earmarked first. Because without the corridor, you’ll not know the areas to capture in the assessment or evaluation.
In your letter to the property owners, you gave deadline. You said they should make available necessary information for valuation by August 31, 2013. What happens to those who fail to meet your terms?
The exercise is continuous. The reason we gave deadline is, many times, if you leave it open, people don’t take the exercise seriously and they’ll not come with the relevant documents. Even today [last Tuesday], some people submitted documents, so as they come, we’ll continue to receive documents. The essence is, we emphasise importance of them making their submissions early enough so that we’ll be able to determine their entitlements with regards whether they’re entitled to compensation or not.
So there’s likelihood that some will not be compensated because they may not meet your requirements for compensation?
 Yes, under the laws of the FCT—not just FCT but the federal government. The issue of compensation is embedded in our constitution and it’s very very clear. The FCT is urban area under the jurisdiction of the Minister for FCT. For Nasarawa State, they’ll know what to do. I think it’s the same procedure.
In FCT, there are standard regulations required of everybody to be entitled to compensation. You must have your certificate which must be duly signed by the minister and there must be an approved layout and you must have your building plan approvals. If you fail short of any of these, then they’re not legal documents or legal properties.
That is why we wrote to everybody requesting them to present their documents. Assuming they’re not recommended for compensation, there’s still window for them to come make case for why they should be considered.
But this is a constitutional matter and it falls under the laws of the federation. So we as public officers must ensure that we follow the rules and regulations of the country and obey the law.
Most of these people got their titles from Bwari Area Council because that place started developing as early as 1994. That was before former FCT Minister Ahmed el-Rufai ordered that titles shouldn’t be issued by any person other than the FCT minister. So by the time authorities recognized the fact that titles must be signed by the minister, titles had already been issued by council chairmen. Are you saying those holding such titles will lose their property without compensation?
What I said is we’re going to be guided by the laws of the country. You’re aware that even after that announcement by the [former] FCT minister, there’re still a lot of unplanned developments that have been going on. So as a citizen of this country and as a public servant, I’m bound to obey the laws of the country. And that is very basis on which we’re conducting the assessment. There must be layouts that have been approved by the minister.
Yes, the area councils have some areas they’ve been given consent to allocate by the minister. Once they fall within these planned layouts, there’s no problem. However, determining which are the planned is what we refer to the Department of Development Control.
So we capture all the information we have and that’s why we asked them to bring their documents. They bring their documents, we refer them to the Department of Development Control which represents the FCT and ensures that buildings are built according to the rules and regulations of FCT.
This compensation is monetary only or you can give alternative land?
The issue of compensation that falls within the jurisdiction of this department is to recommend for compensation. The issue of alternative plot doesn’t fall within the purview of this department. The minister can use his discretion to give alternative plots.
But we all know that land is not inexhaustible. We have limited land so what we’re meant to do is to recommend all those that are entitled to compensation which is based on the replacement cost basis as approved by the constitution of the country.