FLASHBACK: In 2021, FG Warned Festac Residents Of Mass Demolition Of Substandard Structures

Last week, many residents of Abule-Ado, Oriade Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Lagos State, were thrown into despair as the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) demolished their properties.

The FHA said the properties were substandard structures that were erected without approval.

Most of the properties were occupied or owned by residents and landlords of King’s Royal Estate, 91 Road, Festac Phase 2, one of the estates in Soba community in Abule-Ado, Lagos.

However, the occupants received warnings and demolition notices ahead of the exercise.

On Friday, November 17, 2023, Akintola Olagbemiro, the zonal managing director of FHA, South-West zone, told reporters that residents of houses marked for demolition at the Festac Phase 2 area of Lagos State had violated rules.

According to Olagbemiro, the occupants of the houses continued to erect structures in the area despite a stop order from the FHA.

He revealed that the notices had been served since August informing residents of the planned demolition of illegal structures. However, residents claim the notices were sudden and inadequate.

But the notices on many of the demolished buildings indicated that notices were given long before the caterpillars were brought in to pull the structures down.

Some of the notices date back to November 2022 (FHA/AR/34 23.11.2022), while some of the most recent notices date back to 25 August and 22 September, 2023 respectively.

Eko Hot Blog gathered that the FHA first issued a threat of mass demolition of properties in Festac in 2021.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in November 2021, Francisca Michael-James, FHA’s Head of Town Planning, South-West Zone, said efforts to stop encroachments and building without approval in Festac had failed as the encroachers ignored ‘stop work’ orders and eviction notices.

She said the last demolition notice served on illegal occupants in the town elapsed days ago; hence, the proposed mass demolition.

Mrs Michael-James said that substandard buildings under construction on the encroached portions were on swampy land and risked collapse because of the soil type and its behaviour.

She said that the whole of Festac Town was sitting on the same kind of delicate soil but gave assurance that engineering solutions were applied to estates built by the Federal Government to achieve quality and durable construction.

“Anytime from now when our management gives approval and the task force is ready for us, we will swing into action.

“We are going to demolish especially structures that are on our major roads; the buildings lack structural integrity because they (owners) never came to us for any approval.

“Our professionals did not supervise the constructions, we don’t even know the integrity of structures that they are building on site in this era of building collapse,” she said.

Mrs Michael-James said that encroachers were building on Federal Government land.

According to her, there is an edifice being constructed on a major road in FESTAC, and after the property was served a ‘stop work’ order and demolition notice, the owner continued building and started painting.

The FHA official noted that apart from substandard buildings on illegally-acquired land in Festac Town, houses were being constructed on road setbacks, drains and other infrastructure.

Click To Watch Our Video Of The Week: