The House of Representatives has asked the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun to arrest the Executive Secretary of the Federal capital development Authority (FCDA), Richard Dauda over its refusal to appear before it to respond to alleged breach of building codes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The House through its Committee on Public Petition also ordered the arrest of the Director of the Department of Development Control, Muktar Galadima and the Director of Regional Planning of the FCT.

The Chairman of the Committee, Mike Etaba during proceedings on Thursday explained that the decision to issue the warrant of arrest on the aforementioned officials was in tandem with the extant provision of the Legislative Houses powers and privileges Act 2017.

Daily Trust reports that the issuance of the warrant of arrest followed the persistent failure of the officials to honour the summons by the committee to appear before it.

The committee directed the IGP to not only ensure the arrest of the officials but compel them to appear before the committee on March 28 to explain their roles in the alleged infraction.

Etaba explained that he was left with no option but to call for the arrest of the FCDA officials after they deliberately shunned the summons of the committee on Tuesday and Thursday this week.

Etaba, who later led members of the committee to conduct an on-the-spot assessment of the building site in Guzape, disclosed that the FCDA officials would be compelled to produce documents required to ascertain the veracity of the claim of the petitioner.

“We had a petition that was brought before us by a Nigerian citizen; in the course of investigation, FCDA has refused to come and tender documents necessary for us to proceed with this investigation. But for today we have come to the site where the petition is referring to.

“We have looked at the building plans and the engineer on site who we met told the committee that there is no approved building plan with him right now. We have looked at the structure and the landmark.

“We have looked at it and we would go back to the committee and ask for more documents, most especially the approved plan so that the FCDA would be able to explain to us the guideline they gave for this building”, he said.

Daily Trust recalled that the committee had at its proceedings on Tuesday adopted the petition on the issue regarding plot AO9399 cadastral zone filed by the chairman of the House committee on Customs, Elder Leke Abejide.

Counsel to Abejide, Samuel Ajayi had explained that the petition before the House committee was in respect of the development on a property at AO9399 Cadastral zone, allegedly contravening the building code of the FCT.

“We have a complaint in respect to a building going on there in Guzape which trespassed into the rights of my client. We are urging the appropriate authority to take appropriate steps to address the issue,” he said.