Posted by By AMOS DUNIA, Abuja on
The interim report of the Senate Committee, on the Federal Capital Territory, that probed past administrations of the FCTA from 1999 to 2007 has accused the former Minister of the FCT, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, of gross abuse of office and power in the allocation of plots of land and demolition in the Federal Capital Territory.
The interim report of the Senate Committee, on the Federal Capital Territory, that probed past administrations of the FCTA from 1999 to 2007 has accused the former Minister of the FCT, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, of gross abuse of office and power in the allocation of plots of land and demolition in the Federal Capital Territory.
The committee in its interim report submitted to the Senate on Thursday at plenary also accused el-Rufai of undue acquisition of wealth without caution or regard for society just as it submitted that 19 plots of land in Jabi District of Abuja that was converted to 45 plots without application and approval from the authority should be revoked.
'On scrutinizing the policy files of the property it became obvious that some of the allottees were under-aged, some got the allocation before completing the land application forms, some got it on the date of application while others got theirs, one to three days after applying. However, a common factor in the applications was that no evidence of application fees could be found in the files. The certificates of occupancy of the plots were signed for and collected on May 28, 2007 by one Cyril Ezeamaka, a personal assistant to the then minister, el-Rufai."
The interim report also stated that the immediate past Minister of the FCTA, Mallam Nasir Ahmed el-Rufai, allocated 4,352 plots in less than 30 days to his exit as minister, saying that a breakdown of the allocations made in the last two weeks of his leaving office shows that he signed out 3,645 while on the last day of Obasanjo administration, on May 28, 2007, the former minister signed out 655 plots even though he had seized to be minister on May 16, 2007 as the Federal Executive Council was already dissolved by the former president.
'The committee finds that not a single plot was actually revoked for overriding public interest as they were re-allocated to other persons and not the state. Similarly, the discovery by the committee whereby certain lands were revoked for being on sewer or water lines and re-allocated to family members was a classic case of abuse of power by the former Minister Mallam Nasir Ahmed el-Rufai," the committee report stated.
On demolition, the committee found that not a single demolition followed due process as there was no sufficient notice or opportunity given to people to appeal the demolition order, adding that the former minister revoked land allocation without due process as the memoranda which he approved for the revocations were written by persons not authorized by law namely Ezeamaka Cyril and Babatunde Olajide who were his personal assistants.
The report also accused el-Rufai of abused of office following his revocation of land on green areas and sewer lines, which he eventually gave to members of his family, adding that he also revoked lands belonging to other persons for no reason at all and reallocated same to his wives, family, associates and personal assistants.
Accordingly, the Joint Senate Committee strongly recommended the withdraw of all land allocations and revocations by the former Minister of FCT, Mallam el-Rufai, which were signed between May 15 and 29, 2007 when he had become funtus officio at the dissolution of the then Federal Executive Council, as well as review all allocations and revocations made between May 1 to 15, 2007
The committee equally recommended the restoration of all allocations of land on which a court order subsisted before demolition and/or reallocation in addition to withdrawing the fresh allocation having being made illegally.
Accordingly, it recommended that all future revocations must be carried out only in accordance with the Land Use Act and the principle of fair hearing just as it advised for the reversal of all revocations that were made for non re-certification.