July 12, 2017
By Ijendu Iheaka
Abia state residents who initiate
building registration processes without completing them before starting to build risk paying
N1 million fine or having their houses demolished, Abia State Town Planning
Authority (TPA) has warned.
The Director, Abia State Town
Planning Authority, Mr Chibueze Nwaogwugwu gave the warning in an
interview with the our reporter in Aba on Thursday.
Nwaogwugwu spoke at the sidelines of
the investiture of Elder Nelson Nwosu as the 9th Chairman, Nigerian Institute
of Town Planners, Abia state chapter and inauguration of the executive officers
in Aba.
He said that anybody who moved to
start building a house on a piece of land in Abia territory without getting a
proper permit was offending the law and will face punishment.
“When we seal a building and the
owners unseal it without permission, the punishment clearly contained in
Section 75 of the Urban and Regional Planning Law and stipulates a fine of
N1million and N5million for individuals and corporate bodies respectively.
“When the owners of the building are
neither willing to comply with the rules and nor to accept their punishment,
the authority is permitted by law to demolish the building and recover the
land”, he said.
The director decried the attitude of
residents who claim that payment receipts for initiating building processes are
building permits and urged them to desist from such acts or be ready to face
the law henceforth.
He said that the receipts issued
prospective builders were only for the services rendered them at the beginning
of the process and cannot be taken to be the permit to start construction.
He said that people wanting to
involve the Town Planning Authority (TPA) in their building arrangement must
come with a building plan and title document including the Certificate of
Occupancy.
Nwaogwugwu also said that when
people get their permits, they should remain guided by the TPA to ensure they
did not go off-course and suffer severe punishments.
He said that the Abia State TPA had
begun a media enlightenment programme in electronic and print media to educate
residents and to save them from such costly mistakes.
He said that the town planning in
Abia state was a government activity wherein government employs and pays the
Executive Secretaries in the authority.
Nwaogwugwu said that past Abia state governments lacked
the political will and interest to plan the state adding that the lack
accounted for the nature of settlements found even in the cities of Abia at
this time.
He praised the Ikpeazu
administration for enabling arrangements to plan the state which is ongoing now
in conjunction with United Nations Settlements Programme (UN Habitat).
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