As the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) continues to demolish illegal buildings it has issued a warning to FESTAC property owners to cease any additional development without authorization.
At a press briefing, following recent destruction in the region, Umar Lawal, Zonal Head, Land Survey, South West FHA, revealed that only around 40 structures had been completely removed, with another 40 buildings, including fences, only partially dismantled.
Lawal denied negative reports against the demolition, saying proper notices were given to the affected property owners, but they continued to build on government lands.
He noted that 363 hectares of 2,024.64 hectares of total land acquired by FHA, which are under litigation, were not affected.
The Authority said its recent demolition of houses in FESTAC Town in Lagos State was proactive measures to avert looming danger caused by years of abuse of physical planning laws.
According to Lawal, the FESTAC master plan had been infringed upon, and the violations persisted unabated.
The authority is taking preemptive measures to prevent building collapse and unnecessary loss of life since, according to him, people have not complied with agreements struck with the FHA in 2022.
The Authority insisted that its response was to correct negative narratives of ethnic segregation being peddled by mischief-makers, some of whom were serial land grabbers intending to create disunity. The management explained how it designed a second phase of the FESTAC Town with a standard layout for development, which was bastardised and later slowed down by litigations
The Authority stated that the stakeholders agreed that all developments along roads, buildings near canals, and pipelines must be demolished. The Authority further explained that it agreed to reconsider several affected persons during a stakeholders’ meeting in 2022 to salvage as many buildings as possible without compromising standards.
It stated that it also decided to halt all development and conduct an integrity test for any building that has not received FHA certification.
It further stated that, contravention notices and conditions for regularization were served on affected buildings for FHA to conduct verification and regularization exercise, and where necessary recovery.
