.Says 363 hectares of land under litigation
The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) has warned FESTAC property owners to stop further development without approval, as demolition of illegal structures continues.
Zonal Head, Land Survey, South West FHA, Umar Lawal, who disclosed this, yesterday, during a media briefing following recent demolition in the area, said only about 40 buildings had been demolished, while about 40 others, including fences, were partially demolished.
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.
Lawal said the master plan of FESTAC had been bastardised and the infractions had continued unabated.
He said residents did not comply with agreements reached with FHA on how to salvage the situation in 2022, which is a ticking bomb, hence the proactive efforts by the authority to prevent building collapse and avoidable loss of lives.
The Authority insisted that its response was to correct negative narratives of ethnic colouration 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, which 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, said that the stakeholders agreed that all developments along the roads, buildings close to canals and pipelines must be demolished.
It said that it was also resolved that every building not certified by FHA officials must undergo integrity test while all forms of developments must stop.
It further that contravention notices and conditions for regularisation were served on affected buildings for FHA to conduct verification and regularisation exercise, and where necessary recovery.
