The Centre for Human Rights and Advocacy in Africa Network (CHRAAN) has condemned the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) for demolishing the multi-billion-naira Cancer Centre at the Margaret Lawrence University Teaching Hospital (MLUTH) in Abuja’s upscale River Park Estate.

 

The cancer treatment facility, which has been under construction for about a year, was reduced to rubble on Saturday, September 13, 2025, when FCTA bulldozers moved into the estate without warning.

 

In a statement issued on Sunday and co-signed by Executive Director Henry Abba and Director of Programmes Michael Ikwebe, CHRAAN described the action as “high-handed, insensitive, barbaric and unacceptable.”

 

The group said information available to it showed that no reason was given by the FCTA for the demolition. “The whole incident has brought panic to the estate. Nobody knows what is going on because the FCT Minister had earlier stated that only undeveloped portions would be repossessed. But here, we have a project that has been actively under development for a year,” the statement read.

 

According to the rights group, officials of the FCTA carried out the exercise without prior notice, spending the entire day pulling down the structure. It described the action as “ill-timed, wicked, and done in bad faith,” alleging it was part of a wider policy to grab land in the estate under the guise of urban development.

 

“This country is under siege, and nobody seems to be talking. It is legally and morally wrong for the FCTA to demolish a University Teaching Hospital Cancer Centre without notice—and on a Saturday,” CHRAAN stated, noting that the action followed the demolition of 35 other structures in the estate in the past three days on the orders of the Ministerial Taskforce set up by FCT Minister Nyesom Wike.

 

The group urged Wike to call the task force to order, accusing it of exceeding the minister’s approved report. “When has a project under construction become an undeveloped space?” CHRAAN queried.

 

Efforts to reach the management of the Margaret Lawrence University Teaching Hospital for comment were unsuccessful as calls to its contacts did not go through.