The department of development control, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, says it will soon begin the demolition of illegal estates along the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Road, Abuja.
It accused some estate developers of building along the road with backdated allocation documents in spite of the notices issued to them.
Director of the department, Mr. Yahaya Yusuf, who addressed a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday, added that his officials demolished separate 100 illegal buildings in Kyami District along the Airport Road last Saturday.
He said, “The demolition affected estates belonging to the Nigerian Prisons Service, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and Liberty Estate.
“The developers ignored the various ‘stop work and quit notices’ served on them and the department had no alternative than to pull down the structures, many of which were at advanced levels.”
Yusuf said in an effort to dissuade illegal developers of estate in Apo and along Airport Road, the government placed adverts in three newspapers between June 3 and 28, 2012.
He added that there were series of radio announcements, which were not heeded.
The architect stated that his department had never carried out demolitions without inputs from stakeholders including the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria.
He said, “When announcements were made that development should be suspended along Airport Road, the department (development control) informed REDAN and even went on a tour of the affected estates with them and REDAN assured the authority that their members will suspend further development pending the new layout, but these developers ignored all the warnings and continued development.”