Puzzling Demolition

NNAMDI FELIX / ABUJA

Published on October 15, 2012 by TheNEWS Magazine


Confusion and outrage have continued to trail the demolition of 372 unites of 3 and 2 Bedrooms apartment buildings financed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, FMBN, through an estate development company, Minanuel Int. Limited, owners and promoters of Minanuel Estate, situated at Goza, a layout in Lugbe District, along the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.

Residents and beneficiaries are miffed at the massive destruction of a project that would have helped in easing the ever increasing cost of decent accommodation in the city by a government which had consistently sang songs of providing decent accommodation for the teeming population of the capital city.

Trouble started brewing between the estate developers and Development Control, an agency of the Federal Capital Territory Administration saddled with regulating development in Abuja, some months ago when the estate developers mobilized to the site for the commencement of the project.

The developers, through a primary mortgage institution, Platinum Savings and Loans, which is among the very visible and active primary mortgage institutions in Abuja, had advertised for sale of prototype 2 and 3 Bedrooms apartments at the estate  with the promise of securing social mortgage financing which attracts a single digit interest rate from the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria for interested participants.

Like a wild fire in the harmattan season, subscription for the houses at the proposed 580 apartment units estate was near total with the already completed 372 units allocated to civil servants as beneficiaries of the social housing mortgage financing provided by FMBN through Platinum Savings and Loans.

With the promised delivery date of the apartments to the beneficiaries fast approaching, the project site was a beehive of activities heightened by constant pressure from beneficiaries clamoring for timely delivery of their homes with bustling excitement at the prospect of becoming landlords in Abuja, a city whose record for sky high rents and property cost, is legendary.

These expectations and hopes were however dashed on Saturday, 29th September, at about 12:35 pm, when Mr. Yahaya Yusuf, Director of FCT Development Control, mobilized and deployed bulldozers to the project site and pulled down 346 apartment buildings in the estate within a couple of hours.

By the time the Development officials were done that Saturday, only 26 units of the 3 Bedroom apartments were grotesquely standing amidst the wreckage left behind by the rampaging bulldozers.

Not done, the officials reportedly returned the very next day, Sunday 30th September, to complete the demolition exercise and completely destroyed the outstanding 26 units spared the previous day when the demolition exercised was embarked on.

Seething with rage at the massive destruction visited on the estate by the government agency, the chairman of the Association of Property Agents of Nigeria, Abuja Chapter, Alhaji Shuaibu Chattan, decried what he termed an unnecessary destruction of houses in the  face of an acute housing shortage in the Federal Capital territory.

"Why would a project of this magnitude be demolished? A project where huge scarce resources had been sunk in to alleviate the housing challenges facing Abuja residents, demolished just like that! This is reprehensible"

The developers informed the magazine that the plot of land where the estate was constructed comprised of three plots of land with numbers ED 1428, 1429 and 1430 respectively allotted to Messrs NCR & Associates and Minanuel Int. Limited in December, 1997, with each of the plots measuring about five hectares.

In a press statement issued at the end of the demolition exercise, spokesman to the agency, Ms. Mudasiru Josie, stated that the demolition of the estate became inevitable due to the recalcitrant attitude estate developers who continued to build with back dated AMAC allocation despite all the necessary Stop Work and Quit Site notices served by the Department of Development Control.

Also speaking to TheNEWS over the demolition, the Director of Development Control, Yahaya Yusuf, pointed out that construction on the other estate opposite Minanuel estate that was spared was commenced earlier in time before the FCT Administration waded into what it termed "massive illegal development going on at that environs" and stopped further constructions in collaboration with the Real Estate Development Association of Nigeria, REDAN, an umbrella body of estate developers.

As both parties trade blames and counter claims, a significant number of houses that would have contributed immensely in reducing the acute housing deficiency in the Federal Capital Territory had been destroyed dealing a debilitating blow on government's mass housing provision drives.