The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Muhammad Bello, says strict adherence to the Abuja Masterplan must be followed in the establishment of estates, vowing to enforce compliance.

Mr Bello made the pledge at the commissioning of an office complex of the Abuja Property Development Company (APDC), held on Friday in Abuja.

He said that all estates ordinarily should have provisions for play areas, community centres, shopping facilities, places for worship and in some areas also, depending on the size, provisions for places for educational activities.

“We cannot just create estates where every square inch is dedicated to building and that’s why our enforcement activities will be enhanced.

“I am just saying this to let the public know and like they say, shine your eyes,” Mr Bello said.

Mr Bello advised anybody who wanted to buy any property in any estate in Abuja to do proper diligence.

“The first place to do it, you come to the FCT, go to the relevant department and confirm that that particular estate is genuine and then confirm that the person himself is genuine.

“You must probably have noticed that over the last few weeks, we have been demolishing and we will continue to demolish.

“I want to use this opportunity to tell genuine investors that nobody’s property will be touched if it’s on a genuinely allocated land that has the correct papers.

“Nobody’s property will be touched if it was built based on Development Control approval,; based on all the requirements by law that a person needs.

“Whoever built and no matter how highly placed and no matter how expensive that building is, it will go down.”

Mr Bello said going forward, people would also be prosecuted for the cost of the diesel and the staff and the police used to embark on the exercise.

According to him, if for any reason, an investor arranges with thugs and they beat development control staff, they will be charged with criminal procedures.

“We want to develop the city but the city has to be developed in an organised manner, just like it is done in all parts of the world,” the minister said.

(NAN)