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Demolition: Minister Advises Land Buyers

By on October 23, 2012

Scene of Demolition in Abuja

With the recent demolition on Airport road, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development Ms. Amal Pepple has warned land buyers in Abuja to be cautious before making their purchase.

The advice was given by the Minister during the memorial of the World Habitat Day in Abuja.

The event was titled “Changing cities, building opportunities”. The minister advised that when buying lands in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), they should ensure that the land papers which includes the titles were in their hands.”

During the event, the Minister said, “I would advise people to be careful with how they buy lands, and where they build their houses, with the recent demolition on Airport road, Abuja, an estate like that should have a title.”

“Demolition can be an answer for so many reasons, like when people build on waterways, or transgress by building on properties that do not belong to them. Then demolition can come in. However, there should be a human face to all this.”

“This 2012 alone, the ministry has given out 89 lands to private developers in all parts of the country, yet I can still tell you that there are challenges with some of the lands given to these developers. Some of the houses or lands that have had challenges through the ministry, it is making arrangement to pay back the money, but not immediately,” she added.

She also said, “We cannot build enduring, inclusive, functional, livable  and resilient cities if our preoccupation is with the planning and development of mega cities only.”

“On the contrary, we need to maximize the opportunities available in intermediate cities and small towns by ensuring the proper planning and utilization of their territorial spaces before they degenerate fast into slums and inhabitable human settlements.”

She continued, “This requires taking a holistic and futuristic view of planning rather than the otherwise myopic planning of our national agenda on urban development, which we are committed to implementing with all the  key stakeholders in the housing and urban development sector through the instrumentality of the recently approved National Housing Urban Development policies by government.”

She said the most significant need for exploiting the opportunities in the cities was to guarantee peace and security, adding that the bad experience being faced by some urban inhabitants in some parts of the country caused by bloodshed was strange to our culture.

The Senate Committee Chairman on Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Senator Buka Abba lamented the nonconstructive public discernment, lack of concern, and lack of knowledge about the need for developing the cities to provide good opportunities for expansion and development for perfection.