By Ben Adoga, Abuja
Federal Housing Authority (FHA) disowned Prince Joseph Kpokpogiri after the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) pulled down his Multi-Million Naira Mansion in Abuja on Saturday morning.
Kpokpogiri, a popular Nigerian celebrity and estranged lover of Nollywood stars went through an ordeal on Saturday morning when his expansive N700 million mansion was demolished by the FCT Administration.
Officials of FHA, alongside its Managing Director, Gbenga Ashafa that visited the site of the demolished building three days ago, in the company of some top management staff of FCTA, admitted that the plot of land originally belonged to FHA, but denied that proper building plan was approved before the mansion was erected.
FHA affirmed that notices to stop work were served at different stages and times of the work, but Kpokpogiri refused to comply.
This is coming barely a day after the FCT Administration assured us that they were ready to pull down all illegal structures on waterways.
That assurance was given after NiMET warned that flooding was imminent in parts of the country and that the FCT would be affected.
Though the demolished structure may not have fallen into this category but has infracted other development control rules ad explained by relevant authorities.
The Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority, Engr. Shehu Hadi who was also in the team that visited the site said that the road alignment had been done long ago and FHA was duly notified.
Hadi noted that the road alignment which the demolished building obstructed was designed to serve as an important bypass to the Abuja-Keffi axis.
He added that any plan to realign the road because of the building would be difficult and not a fair judgement to those that it would affect, considering that the demolished building was not in existence earlier when the plan started.
Also speaking, the Director, Department of Development Control, Muktar Galadima said the Multi-billion Naira Mansion, located in the highbrow District of Guzape, Abuja, was unapproved, and can’t be allowed to override public interest.
Galadima noted that the Mansion sitting on a rock in the fast-developing district, is an obstruction to a major road network, connecting the popular Apo bridge to many parts of the city
According to him, FHA duly allocated the area in the district to carry out its mass housing programme.
He, however, clarified that when the road network of the district was officially realigned, FHA was promptly notified that some plots of land within its area have been affected.
Galadima added, that FHA was ordered not to allow any further development on the affected plots as replacement plots will be given to them.
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He also denied a lack of inter-agency collaboration between FCTA and FHA, stating that all necessary communications were properly documented.
” The plot in question was part of what was in the allocation, but because of the importance of the road, we wrote to FHA, notifying it that a number of your plots have been affected by the realignment of the road and that we are going to give it replacement plots.
“We told them that no development should be allowed on the plots, and this was around 2019, we came for a site visit and have given them notice. We even marked the building for demolition, but the owner cleaned it off,” Galadima said.
Kpokpogiri, the estranged lover of Popular Nollywood star, Tonto Dikeh has however claimed that the decision to pull down his mansion worth over N700m was an act of oppression.
Kpokpogiri alleged that his house was demolished because he refused to sell it to some ” powerful ” but unnamed individuals who had begged him to sell the property to them.
He assured me that he would fight to get justice for the demolished building.
