TheCable

Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), has inaugurated a committee to investigate the issuance of certificates of occupancy (C-of-O) for mass housing and the recovery of land use contravention fees.

Speaking during the inauguration of the committee on Tuesday, Wike said the measure is to ensure that each house in mass housing estates in the city has its C-of-O paid for.

The minister lamented that many residential areas in the FCT have been turned to commercial adding that “something would certainly be done about it”.

Wike said those who contravened the Land Use Act must be recertified and pay penalties, 

He said those who have converted their approvals for residential buildings into commercial structures, and vice versa, would pay for it.

“So, there must be a recertification and there must be penalties,” Abuja Digest, a news magazine quoted Wike as saying. 

“The only way people can be deterred from doing this is to make sure that we discourage them and discouraging them means that if you want to build, you have a penalty to pay, and that penalty must be severe.

“In as much as we want to generate revenue, we also want to control the development of areas.

“Abuja has to go back to the original Master Plan. If there is a need to have some amendment, it is the government that will do such amendment, it is not for the allottees to do so on their own.”

The minister blamed agencies under the FCT administration in charge of land administration partly for the problem, adding that they had been included in the panel to sanitise the system.

The minister gave the committee a one-month working period. 

“So, you must be diligent. Of course, you know, I will monitor what you are doing, and this assignment will not last more than one month from today,” he said.

The task force, chaired by Michael Chinda, the minister’s senior aid on lands, urban and regional planning, has Shehu Ahmad, the executive secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), as the secretary.