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Tears, sorrow as FHA demolishes illegal structures in FESTAC

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5 years ago

November 28, 2021

Tears, sorrow as FHA demolishes illegal structures in FESTAC

The Federal Government through the Federal Housing Authority at the weekend commenced the demolition of structures they described illegal at Festac phase 2 Abulado estate under Amuwo Odofin local government area.

According to an eye witness, the demolition exercise started around 5 am when most of the residents were still on their beds.

Reacting to the development, Mrs Francisca Michael-James, FHA’s Head of Town Planning, South-West Zone, said all efforts to stop developers from encroaching and building without approval in FESTAC had failed as the developers ignored orders to ‘stop work’, highlighting that demolition notice served on illegal occupants in the town elapsed 21 days ago.

She said that parts of Festac Town sits on delicate soil but assured that engineering solutions were applied to estates built by the Federal Government.

“We are going to demolish especially structures that are on our major roads; the buildings lack structural integrity because they (owners) never came to us for any approval.

“Our professionals did not supervise the constructions, we don’t even know the integrity of structures that they are building on site in this era of building collapse.”

The FHA director revealed that it had had the title document for the total land of 2,24.6 hectres in the FESTAC master plan, warning that illegal developers were building on Federal Government land.

She added that there is a structure being constructed on a major road in FESTAC, and after the property was served a ‘stop work’ order and demolition notice, the owner continued building and started painting.

She added that houses were being constructed on illegally-acquired land in FESTAC Town, and on road setbacks, drains and other infrastructure.