Lawal: FHA Served Demolition Notice Before Exercise

Bennett Oghifo

The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) has advised prospective homeowners to always seek information about the true ownership of the land they intend to buy and build on to avoid being defrauded by land speculators/grabbers.

The South West Assistant General Manager/Zonal Head, Survey and Mapping, FHA, Mr Umar Lawal, gave the advice while presenting the demolition notices and engagement with those who built illegally on FHA land in FESTAC Phase II.

Lawal said contrary to figures in the media, ongoing demolition had affected 40 buildings which had irredeemable physical planning infractions or Right of Way (RoW) encroachment issues.

Lawal said the 40 demolished houses were built on NNPCL pipelines, major roads and drains.

Lawal warned those building on ROW in FESTAC to stop, to prevent economic losses, insisting that demolition would continue.

He said, “My advice to the general public is that they should desist from further construction, and that the exercise is a continuous one and whoever continues to build is doing that at his or her own risk.

“They should stop wasting their money because whatever news that they are hearing from people that is not from FHA is fraudulent. So, they should desist from further construction,” he said.

According to him, “FHA acquired 2024.64 hectares and 363 hectares is under litigation; the portion under litigation is on 6th avenue, we are very careful and are not entering that section.”

He said in April 2022, a drone was flown on FESTAC to carry out an aerial survey to ascertain the level of distortion for redesign of the area because the town planning layout had been bastardised.

He explained that even new buildings that had reached lintel levels were captured in the new layout.

He added that a meeting was held and stakeholders were advised to stop any further construction for the authority to be able to redesign the layout to save several buildings from demolition through regularisation.

Lawal said out of 18,000 houses, 14,000 qualified for likely regularisation, adding that, verification and regularisation exercise began and residents were advised to come to the FHA to perfect the process.

He said it was agreed at a stakeholders meeting between the residents and FHA that the only buildings that could not be saved were those on major roads, drainage paths and NNPCL pipelines.

He lamented that in a bid to reduce economic loss, the FHA further compromised by accepting to reduce its roads from 15 to 10 metres to save more buildings that had encroached internal roads.

He said to the amazement of FHA, the stakeholders and representatives of estates within FESTAC, did not comply with the agreement and new buildings without approvals and supervision were springing up.

He said FHA had no choice but to take proactive measures by embarking on the recent demolition to prevent the physical planning infractions, substandard construction and likely consequences.

He said FHA served contravention notices and conditions for regularisation on affected buildings. served notices and demolition exercise in festival town, phase ii, lagos from 17^th to 25^th november, 2023.

Demolition exercise at Festival Town Phase II commenced on Friday, the 17^th day of November, 2023 and lasted till Saturday, the 25^th day of November, 2023. This exercise was a continuation of the halted demolition from 28^th of November, 2021.

The stakeholders meetings before the demolition exercise of November 2023: 19^th January 2022 – inclusive of Ado Royal Estate, Stonewater Estate and King’s Royal Estate, Diamond Garden Estate, etc.

24^th October 2022 – Fagbile Family

14^th June 2023 – Diamond Garden Estate, Stonewater Estate, etc.

27^th September 2023 – inclusive of Ado Royal Estate, Stonewater Estate and King’s Royal Estate (on a Public Holiday)

A team of Federal Housing Authority (FHA) staff and Lagos State Task Force held a press briefing on the proposed demolition of some illegal structures in Festival Town Phase II.

The press briefing was the second after the initial meeting on the 26^th day of November, 2021. The essence of the proposed demolition was once again emphasised, which had to do with encroachments on the Right of Way (RoW), NNPC pipeline and its setbacks, canal setbacks, new developments/illegal constructions after the drone flight of April, 2022 (As-Built Survey), as well as non-compliance with the stop work order, tilting buildings and the buildings below the required Datum Level which leads to flooding.

“With the above observations and having halted the demolition of illegal structures in 2021 to see how best to assist the existing encroachers, new illegal developers sprung up and commenced construction claiming they would be regularised once the structures were existing. When the Authority observed the twist in the mutual stop work agreement between the Authority and the illegal estates, notices were served at different dates as seen below:

Notices Served by FHA

18^th March, 2022 – Stop Work Notice (65 Road and 6^th Avenue axis)

29^th June, 2022 – Stop Work Notice (9^th Avenue axis – inclusive of Ado Royal Estate, Stonewater Estate and King’s Royal Estate)

23^rd September, 2022 – Stop Work Notice (9^th Avenue axis – inclusive of Ado Royal Estate, Stonewater Estate and King’s Royal Estate)

23^rd November, 2022 – Stop Work Notice (9^th Avenue axis – inclusive of Ado Royal Estate, Stonewater Estate and King’s Royal Estate)

7^th December, 2022 – Stop Work Notice (Stonewater Estate)

25^th August, 2023 – Demolition and Final Demolition Notice (9^th Avenue axis – inclusive of Ado Royal Estate, Stonewater Estate and King’s Royal Estate)

4^th September, 2023 – Demolition and Final Demolition Notice (1^st and 6^th Avenues axes)

The Demolition Exercise So Far

Demolition of illegal structures in Festival Town Phase II commenced on Friday, the 17^th day of November, 2023, and lasted till Saturday, the 25^th day of November, 2023.

Total Demolition

10 buildings in Ado Royal estate

10 buildings along the 25^th Avenue carriageway

14 buildings along the 9^th Avenue carriageway

3 buildings in King’s Royal Estate

1 building along 4^th Avenue carriageway

2 buildings under construction outside Stonewater Estate

Partial Demolition

5 buildings on the 9^th Avenue carriageway

5 buildings along the 25^th Avenue carriageway

36 fences in Stonewater Estate

3 fences outside Stonewater Estate