Ezrel Tabiowo
The Senate has called for the regulation of estate developers in the country, saying that most of the property developed in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) lacked infrastructure.
The call on the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to regulate the activities of estate developers was made yesterday by the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, in his concluding remarks on a bill.
The bill which passed second reading on the floor during yesterday’s plenary was entitled “An Act to Authorise the Issue from the Federal Capital Territory Administration Statutory Revenue Fund of the Federal Capital Territory Administration Account, the sum of N271,125,103,635.”
He said despite the contribution of developers towards the development of the territory, the FCDA should ensure that contract undertaken “makes it mandatory for them to provide adequate facilities alongside property.”
Ekweremadu said: “The second one is the issue of private estate developers and the federal housing authority. They have been helping in developing the FCT but it appears that they are not being well regulated. Most of the properties they have developed are lacking in infrastructure.
“If it is part of the contract for them to develop, then it should be enforced that those properties were accompanied with adequate facilities.
But if it is the business of the FCDA to bring about facilities and infrastructure within those places, you have to make sure that happens, so that any part of the FCT we develop let us be sure it is well developed.”
According to him, a situation whereby estates are developed in the FCT without adequate facilities alongside such as roads, electricity and water is totally unacceptable.
He urged the Senate Committee on FCT to take seriously its function of oversight towards ensuring that developers complemented the efforts of the FCDA.
“So it is not in our interest that you come to an estate, they don’t have roads, they don’t have electricity and they don’t have water. That is completely unacceptable. And of course, you mentioned the issue of the area councils.
“We are the House of Assembly of FCT, so that means that we also oversight the area councils. So, we must ensure that they complement the effort of the FCDA in the development of our capital city in a very coordinated manner. We have a lot to do in this respect.”
