The Federal Government has said it
will not demolish the national secretariat of the New Peoples Democratic Party,
being led by Abubakar Baraje, if the owner of the building reverts to its
original plan.
It said the owner of the building
must stop using it as a commercial building.
Public Relations Officer of
Development Control, an agency under the Federal Capital Territory Development
Authority, Mr. Kalu Emetu, said this in an interview with reporters in Abuja on
Tuesday.
“We marked it in order for the owner
to revert it to its original status. When this is done, there would be no
demolition,” he said.
The FCTDA said that the building,
located at No. 4, Oyi River Crescent, Maitama District in the FCT, would be
demolished for violation of land use.
The Director of Development Control
of the FCT, Alhaji Yahaya Yusuf, said the location of the building was meant
strictly for residential purposes and that converting it to a party secretariat
had violated the Abuja master plan.
Yusuf said that it was not only the
New PDP secretariat that might be demolished, but about 202 other buildings in
the capital city and that all the affected buildings would be pulled down if
their owners refused to revert to the original plan.
But the National Publicity Secretary
of the Baraje-led PDP, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, challenged the FCT on the planned
demolition.
Eze said, “Let them go ahead and
demolish the building. We can assure them that we are going to rebuild the
building with money from the Federal Government of
Nigeria.
“We will sue them for wilful
destruction and they will be made to know that the building belongs to a
Nigerian citizen with constitutional rights to own property in any part of the
country, including the Federal Capital Territory.
“The FCT Minister, Senator Bala
Mohammed, is on an agenda to destroy President Goodluck Jonathan, because under
no circumstances would a cabinet minister embark on such destructive mission.
“The minister has been mandated by
some forces to find a way of destroying President Jonathan and he has happily
embarked on that mission. That is why he is doing something that is not
expected of a normal person.”
He said the minister did not have the
powers he was arrogating to himself.
Tags
Politics