FG to demolish illegal structures on highways, shorelines – Surveyor-General warns
By Kunle Sanni –
The Federal Government has announced plans to demolish buildings and developments encroaching on federal highways, shorelines, coastal roads, islands, and lagoon areas, particularly those executed without proper survey coordination.
Surveyor-General of the Federation, Abduganiyu A. Adegbomehin, disclosed this in Abuja on Friday while outlining measures to enforce President Bola Tinubu’s directive on federal land administration and legacy infrastructure.
He explained that all structures encroaching on the Right of Way or developed without proper survey approval will be demolished to prevent distortion of the Federal Infrastructural Master Plan.
The Federal Government has also resolved to regulate sand dredging activities in Lagos, with measures aimed at protecting federal infrastructure from the adverse effects of unregulated mining near bridges and waterways.
Adegbomehin further announced a moratorium on new documentation requests for shoreline and lagoon developments, suspension of pending allocations and Certificates of Occupancy, and directed the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) to submit all previous approvals to the Presidency while halting new ones.
He reminded the public that the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation (OSGOF), under the Survey Coordination Act, Cap S13, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, is the statutory body mandated to regulate, standardize, and harmonize all survey activities nationwide.
The Surveyor-General warned that any wrongfully issued or backdated approvals not authorized by the Presidency or OSGOF are liable to revocation at the President’s instruction.
The enforcement measures, he stressed, are part of the Federal Government’s efforts to safeguard highways, shorelines, and other strategic infrastructure from uncoordinated and illegal developments.
