The Centre for Human Rights and Advocacy in Africa Network yesterday condemned the demolition of the Margaret Lawrence University Teaching Hospital (MLUTH) Cancer Centre by officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Saturday, last week.

The world-class University Teaching Hospital is situated inside the high-brow River Park Estate Abuja. The construction of the center started a year ago, with massive construction work on going at the project site.

However, the FCTA rolled into River Park Estate, hous- ing the gigantic facility and pulled the structure down to rubble. In a statement, the group described the demolition as “high-handed, insensitive, barbaric and unacceptable”.

It expressed shock and disbelief that demolition of this magnitude could take place in contemporary Nigeria, and wondered what the FCTA is aiming at in the high-value estate.

The group said: “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 inaugurated 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 a demolished the structure. In fact, they took the whole day to even do what they were doing there.”