By PHILIP YATAI

The Abuja Metropolitan Management Council of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has given its Development Control Department 48 hours to demolish more than 10 duplexes built on a green area.

The Coordinator, Mr Felix Obuah, gave the order in Abuja on Thursday, during a joint inspection of illegal construction of illegal structures across the city.

Obuah explained that the duplexes were built on a green area in Wumba District, close to Apo in Abuja, with no authorisation.

He said that officials of development control had earlier asked the developer to stop work, including marking the structures.

He, however, said that the developer ignored the order and even covered the stopped order written on the building and continued the construction project.

The coordinator said that the developer had given the council no option but to demolish all the illegal buildings.

?When we invited the developer to provide legal documents for the activities he?s carrying out, we all discovered that there is no paper, no approval, no allocation.

?I asked him to stop working, but you can see that the work is still going on.

?So, all these properties that you are seeing here are all going down,? he added.

He said the FCT Administration would not tolerate any development that contravened the provision of the Abuja Master Plan.

The Director of Development Control, Mr Mukhtar Galadima, also said that the developer has no approval from any authority.

?We didn?t give the developer any approval, and when you look around, you would see the evidence that we had marked these structures at different stages of development.

?Unfortunately, people don?t like to respect constituted authority and as I told my colleagues, the only language Nigerians understand is the language of bulldozers that will bring the structures down.

?We are looking at more than 10 structures, some are roofed, and some are not yet roofed.

?So, the development control will come with its bulldozers and in less than 48 hours everything here will go down,? he said.

Also, the Director Parks and Recreation, FCTA, Mr Chidemelu Echee, said that Abuja city was designed in neighbourhoods to ensure unison between nature and construction of structures.

Echee said: ?It is very unfortunate that people will come into a place like this and start a random destruction of the natural ecosystem without any authorisation.

?This is a disaster waiting to happen because when we talk about global warming of the entire system, this is part of it.?

On his part, the Director, Abuja Environmental Protection Board, Mr Osilama Braimah, said that the illegal structures, if allowed to stand, the people would suffer the consequences living without trees and vegetation.

Speaking on the impact on the environment, Braimah explained that the proliferation of concrete buildings retains and radiates heat, making the environment hotter.

According to him, it is essential to have designated green spaces to maintain a conducive ambient temperature.

?When concrete covers everything, it prevents percolation, leading to increased flooding downstream.

?To mitigate this, we must preserve green areas to facilitate percolation, groundwater recharge, and maintain healthy boreholes and wells.? (NAN)

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