By Festus Fifen.

The Nigeria Federal Capital Territory Administration FCTA on Wednesday arrested no fewer than seven Estate Developers allegedly involved in illegal developments and land grabbing in Guzape II District of the Nation’s Capital Abuja,

The suspects, apprehended from two building sites around the Guzape District, were taken to Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) Mobile Court in Area 3, for prosecution over land degradation, as they were caught in the act of conducting earth works in the area.

The raid was led by officials of the FCT Departments of Development Control, Urban and Regional Planning, Land Adminstration, and Abuja Geographical Information System (AGIS) as well as security personnel who provided security cover for them.

Speaking to newsmen after the arrest of the suspects, Director Survey and Mapping, Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Bashir Mahmood, decried the rising acts of land racketeering in the nation’s capital, hinting that the relevant agencies acted upon complaints from contractors handling ongoing major infrastructure works in the area.

Mahmood, who represented the FCDA Executive Secretary, Engr. Shehu Hadi Ahmed, disclosed the sites concerned are within the Guzape II layout, which has been duly allocated by the Honourable FCT Minister.

In his words, “They don’t have any layout to build on, so they are even more than land grabbers, because how can you go and start developing a place that was not given to you?

“And there is an infrastructure going on there since two years ago, and the contractors are complaining about the illegal activities there, which development Control needed to go and demolish”, he added.

Similarly, Director, Development Control Department, Mukhtar Galadima, reiterated that developing without approval is deemed illegal, according to the FCT Act of 1976 and Nigeria Urban and Regional Planning Law.

Galadima said the suspects were caught in possession of a layout purported to be from AMAC showing Kpegyi which is located along Karshi-Jikwoyi road, which they are using to develop in Guzape II.

“We are prosecuting them before the AEPB Mobile Court for offences bordering on land and environmental degradation for claiming and developing what is not theirs”, he stressed.

Director, FCT Land Administration, Adamu Hussaini, called on the public to ensure that whatever they do on land, they should do their due diligence about any land document, and avoid falling prey to people advertising land on social media.

The Nigeria capital is mostly plagued with the menace of land grabbers who are mostly out to dupe susceptible public for personal gains.