By Godfrey AKON
There is unease amongst property developers in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, as another estate, Woodcrest, was demolished by the federal capital development authority, FCDA, on Friday barely two weeks after an estate was demolished.
The FCT minister, Mr Nyesom Wike, and the Chief Executive Officer of the SNECOU Group Limited, Chief Nicholas Ukachukwu, have traded words over the demolition of the latter’s property in Asokoro district of Abuja.
While Ukachukwu claimed the estate sited on 214 hectares was demolished because he was an Ogboman, Wike said that the land in question was allocated when there was no minister, describing Ukachukwu as an “ethnic jingoist”.
Lamenting the demolition, Ukachukwu claimed it was carried out without any court order, a claim that has been denied by the minister.
In a style reminiscent of the demolition of Ukachukwu’s property, heavily armed security operatives including soldiers, policemen and personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSCDC, stopped the developers from gaining entry at the estate located at Mpape, a community in Bwari area council of Abuja.
Speaking with reporters, Eze Okpara, manager of the estate, said they began developing the estate in 2019.
“This is our estate, we started developing it around 2019 and already the structures on ground were three units completed and four units decked, we have three units that we are still decking and then the DPC for the plaza completed,” Okpara said.
“I am surprised that the structures are being demolished. We have household materials and chairs inside one of the units. The estate is 11,000 square meters.”
The manager said before the authorities came to demolish the property, there was another developer who contested the land, and that the case is pending in court.
“They (authorities) came to mark the structures sometimes back, we referred them to our lawyer that whatever they needed are pasted on the wall and the case is still on and to our greatest surprise they are coming for demolition today,” he said.
Tony Ogbulafor, counsel to the developers of the estate, said they have approval for the construction.
“I got a call from the managing director of Toub Associates, it was alleged that some demolition was going on and he called me to the estate to see what was going on,” the lawyer said.
“On getting here, policemen and NSCDC men numbering over 100 blocked us from entering, saying they are a joint task force and they don’t allow anybody to come close, that we can only come in when the demolition is completed.
“Because they were wielding guns, we had to pipe low.”
Ogbulafor said work had not finished on the estate because of the litigation, adding that a court ordered that status quo be maintained pending the determination of the suit.
“Based on the order of the court which said we should not do anything, that is why we stopped, if not we would have completed the estate,” he said.
“We only have staff who are overseeing the things that are there, they are not doing any development.
“Some have been developed, others are under development. We expected the minister, FCDA and Majin Nigeria Limited to obey the order. I cannot say Majin is involved because the police said it is the minister that sent them.”
Some estate developers who spoke to this newspaper decried what they termed “arbitrary demolitions,” by the authorities, warning it would hamper the federal government’s housing plans for Nigerians.
