Abuja, Aug. 21, 2023 – Nyesom Wike, the new Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has warmed owners of illegal structures in Abuja to expect demolition of their buildings.
He gave the warning on assumption of office after being sworn-in by President Bola Tinubu on Monday.
Wike said he would not tolerate distortion of the Abuja Masterplan, stressing that he would demolish all illegal structures regardless of the status of the owners.
“All those people who are distorting the master plan of Abuja, too bad! If you know you’ve built where you’re not supposed to build, it will go down.
“Be you a minister or ambassador, if you know you have developed where you are not supposed to develop, your house must go down.
“Those who have taken over the green areas to build, sorry, our parks must come back. The green areas must come back. If you hate green, you hate yourself.
“Those who have taken over the parks and green areas as where you now do restaurants, we would not accept that. It will go down.
“And all those people who are doing land racketeering, that period is over. And those that the government have allocated lands to them and they refused to develop, the land is gone.
“I’m going to revoke them because I don’t understand how land that you may have paid for N200,000, you now begin to find who will buy it for N2 billion. Who does that?
“We will take back our land and give to those who want to develop. And you must sign that you must develop at a certain time.” (GBN)
