- Wike said some of the persons posing as investors bought tract of land and start reselling to Abuja residents in connivance with legal and land secretariat.
Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, has said that some unscrupulous civil servants are aiding the illegal acquisition of land in Abuja by questionable characters.
He disclosed that some officials connived with land grabbers to work against the federal government on the issues of lands allocation in Abuja.
Wike made this known during a press briefing with select journalists in his office in Abuja
Wike said some of the persons posing as investors bought tract of land and start reselling to Abuja residents in connivance with legal and land secretariat.
He was also reacting to the allegations by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the SNECOU Group Limited, Chief Nicholas Ukachukwu, that Wike ordered the demolition of his property because he’s Igbo and that Wike had vowed deal with Nigerians of Igbo extraction.
Ukachukwu had said FCT minister ordered the demolition of investment on 214 hectares of land in the Asokoro district of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, despite two valid subsisting court orders restraining from doing so.
In his media chat with journalists, Wike said there were several of such cases before him, adding fraudulent land acquisition had become endemic because of the corrupt civil servants aiding and abetting the property investors he called “land grabbers”.
He said they were swindling people and the government by buying hectares of land and reselling to residents, after they might have told the government that the lands were for investments.
“They are conniving with the legal secretariat here. Do you know we can sack them? Sack the land administrator? Have you seen the court judgement? Go and read the court judgement and see whether the court says the land is their own?” Wike asked.
“They went to tell the court to say tell FCTA to return our documents they are holding. I met these matters here. They were over 1000 cases on lands. As the court says ‘FCTA release their documents’ , does that show that you’re entitled to the land? There is no way they would go in there. It is our property!”
Speaking about the conspiracy of how they get court judgement, Wike said, “Do you know after they filed a suit against us, they made a deal with the law secretariat. They brought an external lawyer, and the external lawyer will agree with them, and the judgment will be served. I’ve never seen how corrupt human beings can be.
“The point I’m making is that all sentiments that I’m revoking people’s lands (is) by law. Nobody has said you revoked the land because I’m a Yoruba man. Nobody has said you revoke the land because I’m a Hausa man. What has this gotten to do with Igbo? What kind of a crazy, childish sentiment is that? He said