Bomb scare: Abuja minister cancels rock blast permits

Nnamdi Felix / Abuja

Alarmed by incessant bomb scares within the Abuja metropolis, the FCT Administration on Sunday withdrew all the permits it gave to companies involved in rock blasting and quarry activities in the Federal Capital Territory with immediate effect.

The FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, disclosed this at a meeting with some officials of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, AMMC, in Abuja.

He directed the FCT Development Control Department to get the comprehensive list of quarry operators from the Federal Capital Development Authority with a view to effectively enforcing the operation permit withdrawal. The minister revealed that the FCT Development Control Department has also suspended the processing of all building plan submitted where quarry activities are on-going and disclosed that out of the list of the first batch forwarded to his office by the FCT Development Control Department among all the property seeking re-validation, nine (9) of such structures, failed integrity tests.

He directed the Building Inspectorate Division of the FCT Development Control to invigorate action in handling the anticipated flurry of submissions by affected developers of the abandoned projects.According to him, database created for the scheme as well as necessary information will be placed on the departmental website with photo clips to enable regular monitoring and update as work progresses on individual sites.

He further revealed that 4,077 illegal structures have been removed at Iddo Sarki, Gosa, Tugge and Sauka villages along the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua Expressway, Airport Road, adding that the exercise will be sustained.The Minister also said that 18 illegal structures have been removed in Jikwoyi District, 57 shanties in Central Business District, 47 illegal batchers in Wuse II District.He solicited for the cooperation of the residents of the Federal Capital Territory to rid Abuja of all illegal structures; reiterating that Abuja remains the window in which the World sees Nigeria and therefore we cannot afford to fail.Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.