Authorities of the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory, FCT, through the Department of Development Control has denied media reports claiming officials of the department had received bribe to allow for the rebuilding of a structure earlier demolished.
The structure, a two storey building on plot 4545 at SIL Estate, Mbora district Abuja, was pulled down in July 2020, for contravening the land use act and building on a plot designed to be an open area.
An online media platform had yesterday reported that officials of the department were paid N10million to allow for reconstruction on the said building. The medium alleged that the developer later resumed construction on the damaged structure, ignoring the integrity of the building.
However, reacting to the report, Director of the department, Tpl. Muktar Galadima, dismissed the report insisting that the structure is illegal and will be treated as such.
“We are here in response to a publication that FCTA officials received some amount of money to allow for the rebuilding of a demolished structure. Actually we have seen some aspects of development going on.
“For the records, as far as Development Control is concerned, this building stands illegal and it’s going to be removed immediately”, Galadima noted.
He explained that the plan submitted to the department shows that the plot is an open commercial area meant not to have any structure on it, “but now they are putting up a structure. We removed it earlier and they are back to rebuild.”
The director who is confident that none his officers recieved bribe on the said building, promised to investigate the matter and ensure that any officer found wanting is punished accordingly.
According to him, “We have not received a dime. We are going to remove the structure because it is illegal and unapproved.
“I don’t have prove to show if indeed a bribe was given or, but the in-house mechanism is that we are going to carry out further investigation and any officer found wanting will be suspended before further administrative measures will be carried out against such officer.”
Emmanuel Ukoh
