Abuja – Some residents of Abuja have called on the officials of the Department of Development Control of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to be alert to their responsibility.
The residents made the call in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.
NAN reports that the department is charged with the responsibility of maintaining the Abuja master plan among other mandates.
Mr Philip Okhai, a civil servant, told NAN that the department had been inactive in the last few months.
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Okhai advised the management of the department to step up their enforcement and monitoring duties ‘’to prevent the city from losing its glory.’’
“Maintaining structural standards in a modern capital city requires continuous and concerted efforts by the relevant authority.
“The department has been effective in the past but in recent times, it is no longer visible, this can erode its modest achievement in the area of structural planning and development,’’ he said.
Mr Tony Abu, a lawyer, who resides in Kubwa also advised the department to sustain the enforcement of its structural development laws to check abuse of the master plan.
“In the past, the department held regular sessions of its mobile courts, to sanction residents, who abused the master plan, and that was very effective in maintaining standards.
“However, recently, the courts have not been sitting and recalcitrant residents gone back to abuse the master plan.
“Some illegal structures, which were demolished are now being rebuilt by such developers, the development control department needs to wake up from its slumber to arrest this drift,’’ he said.
Mrs Joy Umoru, a teacher, who resides in Kubwa, also complained about building of filling stations in residential areas.
“There is a fuel service station in densely populated residential area in Byazhin, and another one in phase 2 sites 2, Kubwa.
These fuel stations pose grave danger to residents and we have written petition to the department, but up till now no action has been taken.
“We call on the authorities to take immediate steps to get them removed before a fire outbreak occurs from their activities,’’ she advised.
Reacting, Mr Kalu Emetu, Head of Public Relations, Department of Development Control, said that the department had not been inactive.
“We are still very much involved in monitoring and enforcement of the FCT master plan, but we do not need to make noise about what we do.
“People expect us to always invite the journalists to cover our activities whenever we go for enforcement and because we do not do that always, they complain of inactivity,’’ he said. (NAN)