Department for Development Control recently demolished some illegal structures belonging to non-indigenes at Galadimawa. The Department said that it was illegal for indigenes to indiscriminately sell government lands. In this interview by Dozie Onwuzuligbo, the spokesman of the department, Kalu Emetu gave reasons why the department picked on Galadimawa and its determination to make the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, a model city. Excerpts
What is the true picture concerning the threat to demolish Galadimawa?
A lot have been said about the demolition at Galadimawa and it is not the first place. What we normally do is to ensure we monitor the physical development in the territory. We don’t just remove structures; what we do is that we give people notices right from the time the person is about to start development. When you want to start any development, you come here with your building plans, we look at the technicalities whether it is in line with what is acceptable anywhere. If it meets the requirement, we approve it. You know in FCT, the procedure on land acquisition is not applicable like in other states. It is only the minister of the FCT who performs that function on behalf of the president, who has the powers to allocate land in FCT. In FCT, there are no customary rights where you say indigenes have lands they can sell; it is not applicable here. The lands in FCT belong to the federal government. In the case of Galadimawa, it is one of those numerous removals we have been doing. What we are trying to forestall in Galadimawa is the rate at which the place is growing; it is not as if we are removing every structure there. What we intend to do is to remove all those structures that do not have the approval of the administration. They may not have gotten the land from the right source. Sometimes, the indigenes sell plots of land to non indigenes and you see them building all kinds of structures and you begin to wonder how somebody is putting his money in a place he does not acquire from the right source. What we do in a situation like that is to serve the person all the notices and the reason why we serve the notices is for the person to stop work. We serve the stop work notice then the quit notice before we come for demolition as the last resort. The stop work notice is for the person to come to the department so we can go through his papers to know if he got the land from the right source. It is only when you fail to come for such verification that we act. There are many of them at Galadimawa.
Are you saying the indigenes are not the rightful owners of the land at Galadimawa?
I am not saying they are not the rightful owners, but I explained the process of getting lands in FCT. The indigenes are not the target; the targets are the illegal occupants and developers there. So many of the indigenes have been re-settled long ago and went to settle in other places and you hardly know those that have been re-settled. Sometimes, people who have been re-settled somewhere will sell their house and come to resettle in a different place and when development gets there, they will claim they are indigenes and have not been re-settled.
How do you bridge this communication gap between your agency and these indigenes?
It is the developers who feel there is no need to recognise the administration. When you are served a notice and given two-three months, it is for you to come for verification and when you are not doing these things, the authority will look at it as one developing illegally and the next step is to serve you demolition notice. There is no one that we don’t give up to two months, but the law says after 21 days that we served the first notice, we go ahead and serve the second notice. For a right thinking person, when you are giving such notice, it is for you to come to the department and ask why you were asked to stop work, but many don’t do that. People who have genuine cases come, and once we certify that they have genuine cases, and then they go and continue work.
Is it true that your agency connived with the Galadimawa chief to short-change the indigenes of N50 million?
What they are trying to allege is that the developer gave them some money through their chief. What we do is backed by law; we don’t just take action because we want to. We know Nigerians are getting wiser every day. If you do what is not in line with what the law says, we will take action. Our primary responsibility is to ensure that there is right development in FCT in line with the accepted standard.
Do you compensate for any demolition?
The FCT Administration has a compensation department; they handle compensation. Development Control is only responsible for approving building plans to ensure the building is built in line with the drawing. So from time-to-time, we monitor what you are doing to ensure you don’t build outside what was approved. The compensation depends on the land or structure you have on ground. If there is no structure, they consider the economic trees that were there.
What was the outcome of the dialogue you had with the chief of Galadimawa and the indigenes in respect to the demolition?
We are not supposed to go and destroy everything they have, but the law empowered us to do that so far we have given all the notices. But as human beings, we still considered the fact that these are fellow Nigerians. It took the intervention of the traditional rulers there, chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council and the minister of state, FCT, for our men to leave the scene. The minister of state called for us to withdraw so that the affected people can remove their personal belongings which are part of the dialogue. So it is left for them to obey what was agreed on.
Is it part of the work to infringe on basic right of free movement while enforcing the law?
That is a security matter and I am not in a position to response to that. We invited security personnel to maintain peace. Ours is to remove illegal structures. In a situation like that, you don’t talk of human rights; security men know the reason why they obstructed movement.
Your agency seems to be fighting many battles at a time. Could there be any other alternative rather than resorting to demolition?
There is no regret in fighting a genuine cause. There are processes we had to pass before resorting to demolition. Many people have been going to court and they have been losing. Before the Millennium Estate at Lugbe was demolished, we served the stop work notice and they continued working at a greater speed. We went and serve them the quit notice before we went for demolition.
Last year, residents of Mpape got court injunction stopping your agency from its proposed demolition. How far have you gone with the case?
I will not like to speak on that because it will amount to pre-empting the court. All I will tell you is that we are a responsible agency. The case is still in court and we are waiting for the outcome.