A civil society group under the auspices of Centre For Human Rights And Advocacy In Africa Network, Sunday, condemned in the strongest terms, the demolition of the Margaret Lawrence University Teaching Hospital (MLUTH) multi-billion naira Cancer Center by officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), on Saturday.
The world-class University Teaching Hospital is situated inside the high-brow River Park in Estate Abuja.
The construction of the cancer centre started a year ago, with massive construction work on going at the project site.
However, on Saturday, September 13, 2025, bulldozers of the FCTA rolled into River Park Estate, housing the gigantic university hospital facility and pulled the structure down to rubbles.
In a statement on Sunday, co-signed by it’s executive director, Mr Henry Abba, and director of programmes, Michael Ikwebe, the group described the demolition as “high handed, insensitive, barbaric and unacceptable” and therefore condemned the action of the FCT Administration in it’s entirety.
The group noted that information at its disposal suggested that no reason was advanced by the FCTA for its action.
The Civil Society Organisation expressed shock and disbelief that demolition of this magnitude could take place in contemporary Nigeria and wondered what the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) is aiming at in the high-value estate.
“The whole incident has brought about panic in the estate, and at this point, nobody knows what is going on, because what was said in the report of the FCT Minister was that all undeveloped portion is what they want to re-possess.
“But what we have in this instance is a project that has been commissioned for over a year and has been actively under development for the past one year.
“We learnt on good authority that without any prior notice, the officials of FCTA came in and demolished the structure. In fact, they took the whole day to even do what they were doing there,” the group stated.
The Executive Director said that the action of the FCTA was highly condemnable, unacceptable, and could best be described as one demolition done in bad fate.
“We strongly condemn the continued demolition of structures in River Park Estate Abuja by the FCTA.
“When has a project under construction become an undeveloped space in the estate, the group querried.
“We hereby appeal to the FCT Minister to call the “Ministerial Committee” to order because they are going outside the report approved by the Minister, the statement said,” the group said.
Meanwhile, efforts to get the management of Margaret Lawrence University Teaching Hospital were futile as at the time of going to press.