Owners of the plots of land revoked by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) in Abuja have been warned to stay away from such properties.
Anyone found tampering with the revoked land will be severely dealt with, the FCTA warned at the weekend.
Officials of Development Control Department of the FCTA, led by its Director, Muktar Galadima, foiled an attempt by owners of some of the affected properties in the Maitama District to resume development on the sites.
The team, accompanied by security operatives, confiscated building equipment found on the sites and chased away those found on site. Others were arrested for profilling.
FCT Minister Nyesom Wike revoked no fewer than 165 plots of land in the service districts 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.
Responding to questions from reporters during the operation, Galadima said that his office got the hint that some owners of the revoked land were going back to sites, in violation of the order.
He said,
“Recently, FCTA has revoked some plots for non – development and also sent his last warning on abandoned buildings since December 2022, so, it is unfortunate that those revoked properties, some people are trying to come back and work on them particularly on weekend.
“So, we are on this operation to ensure that all the revoked plots, nobody goes back and work on them and also to use this opportunity to call on the public that any revoked properties that somebody is trying to work on, definitely the administration will not only remove such structures but will ensure prosecution of the person involved.
“The revocation just commenced last week and then we just got information that some people wanted to go back to sites, and we have already intimated our officials to be on the watch out to make sure that nobody goes back to work, because any officials found wanting will be severly dealt with in accordance with the laid down civil service rules and regulations.”
Concerning information that some of the affected property owners may have gone to court to seek redress, he said;
“I am not aware of anything like that, if at all some have gone to the 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 decision of court have to be communicated to the administration for it to study it and decide if there is any need to review it or not.”