FCT Minister Suspends Illegal Development in Katampe Extension
By: Wisdom Acka
Work on the provision of engineering infrastructure to Katampe Extension has been suspended.
Coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), Umar Shuaibu, who made the disclosure in Abuja on Tuesday during routine project monitoring and inspection, said the FCT Minister, Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello, gave the directive for the suspension.
The Coordinator explained that the order was made to restore and maintain the sanctity of the Abuja Master Plan.
According to him, the Minister has ordered the immediate suspension of all site clearance, engineering works and other activities in the area, owing to proliferation of illegal quarry and estate development, causing serious environmental challenges in the area, thereby violating the principles guiding the development of the city.
Revealing that the FCT Administration has not given anybody any approval to commence development in the area, Shuaibu warned that anyone caught carrying out earth works and other unauthorized activities would be arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law.
His words: “The FCT Minister has directed that all development in that area must be suspended henceforth. He also directed that all matters relating to quarry activities should be channeled to the newly established Department of Solid Minerals and Allied Matters, which is now the regulatory authority.”
“So, from now, we have stopped whatever activity that is taking place here for any type of development, as whatever development that is going on here is illegal, because we have not given approval to anybody to commence development here,” he added.
“And that is why we are having environmental challenges. People are blasting rocks here and endangering the houses around, so there is no way we can allow it to continue,” Shuaibu emphasized.
He continued, “Whatever development that involves rock blasting must go through the Solid Mineral and Allied Matters Department, which is created to take care of that now.”
The Coordinator insisted that anybody that is blasting rocks and clearing land here is doing so illegally, and when caught in the act, such person will face the consequences.
