After auditing Abuja satellite town, FCTA lifts ban on building plan approval

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has commenced a post-development audit of satellite towns in Abuja, to generate an efficient data base for sustainable city development.

Mr Mukhtar Galadima, Director, Development Control, FCTA, said at the commencement of the exercise at Dawaki Satellite town, on Tuesday, that the audit would focus on buildings that were developed with approvals and those without approvals.

Galadima said that the audit marked the resumption of processing and granting of building plan approvals in Abuja satellite towns.

He explained that the FCTA had earlier stopped granting building plan approvals due to the lack of engineering designs in some of the satellite towns.

“Satellite towns like Dawaki, where we are starting now, would begin to have engineering design.

“So, we are commencing the post development audit so that those that built without approvals can now be assessed and be granted approvals if qualified.

“There are over 15 satellite towns like Gwagwalada, Kuje, Karshi, Bwari, Abaji among others, and we want to cover all the Satellite towns,” he said.

On the methodology, the director said that the satellite towns were divided into clusters with staff assigned to specific clusters.

Galadima added that the staff would explain to the owners of properties in the satellite towns the modalities, the essence of the exercise and how they can benefit from it.

He said that owners of landed properties in the areas would be expected to submit requisite information and documents within 21 days for necessary actions in line with the provisions of the extant laws.

“In FCT, you cannot build without approval. So, if you have built without approval, furnish us with necessary information within the stipulated time.

“If it is something that can be done, we can approve it as built, but if it is something that we cannot approve, we will remove it,” he said.

Galadima said that the audit was critical to developing the needed data base of developments taking place in the city, in terms of services to be rendered and other perimeters.

“This includes research on the process of developing a new capital city and at the end of the day, it is going to boost our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) profile.

“We have already improved on our approval granting processes,” he said.

In a related development, the development control team visited the site of the demolished scavengers’ colony along the road corridor that cut across Mabushi, Jahi and Kado Districts.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Nyesom Wike, Minister of the FCT had on Oct.10 directed that the colony be demolished to address some recurring security concerns.

Galadima said that the minister had also directed that trees in the area covering about two kilometres should also be cleared and the scavengers dislodged.

He said that the FCTA was taking an inventory of all the plots around the road corridor, so as to get in touch with their owners for them to show presence.

One of the landowners along the corridor in Mabushi, Mr Kayode Olumudeji, commended FCTA for clearing the area

He said, “Nobody believed that this place would look like this. I am very happy, and I want to believe that everybody that has property here will be very happy.

“We are happy with what Wike is doing. This is what we want to see in the FCT.