The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Nyesom Wike has painstakingly revealed how a land director and a lawyer engaged by the FCT administration unilaterally connived to issue 500 hectares of land with infrastructure to an individual who in turn sold the land.
According to the Minister who spoke during the 2023 budget defence and 2024 proposal before the House Committee on FCT chaired by Hon. Aliyu Muktar Betara, the embattled Director of Land gave the illegal approval a few days after the immediate past FCT Minister, Muhammad Bello, left the office on May 29, 2023.
Wike insisted that the Director of Land lacks the capacity to act on behalf of the FCT Minister.
While giving an update on the Legal Services Secretariat’s proposed budget of N5,583,687,567, out of which N1.300 billion is for capital expenditure, Barrister Wike observed that the administration currently has more than 600 cases in courts across the territory.
He disclosed that “every year we have suits not less than 1,000, and all these require a lot of money. As we speak today, we have more than 600 judgements on FCT; some of them are legal, and some of them are civil servants.”
While noting that, “it’s very embarrassing that the former Minister left on May 29. In June, a Director of Land signed 500 hectares of land to an individual. And the individual, of course, goes to this court and gets judgement; the individual goes here and gets judgement; for me, such judgement will not stand. I’m going to demolish the plaza first if you tell our lawyer.
“There are certain things we cannot accept. So, whoever is involved, it doesn’t matter who is involved; the Director of Land cannot act as Minister; it cannot work,” he maintained.
Continuing, the FCT Minister said, “Do you know what this individual did? In connivance with the FCT lawyer, he went to court on Thursday to get an order stopping the commissioning of this park.
“Of course, this is a state; I have to take the file away from the lawyer… I don’t know if anyone can come to you.
“If you’re given 500 hectares, as I thought, you are authorised to do mass housing. Now what they are doing is allocating land to an individual and selling it.
“I’ve never seen that. One man covers 500 hectares. Meanwhile, the government has provided infrastructure. So, when you hear it, as your friend and brother, you have heard it now,” he told the lawmakers of the looming problem his decision may cause.
While giving an update on this year’s proposed budget, the Minister disclosed that a fiscal framework of the sum of N1,147,780,610,283, comprising distributable revenue of N510,364,426,028 and non-distributable revenue of N637,416,184,256, has been proposed for the FCT 2024 Statutory Budget after due deliberations with all the Revenue Generating Agencies of the FCTA.
When compared with the Revised 2023 Appropriation of the sum of N641,247,685,792, there is an increase of the sum of N506,532,924,491.44 (44%) in the 2024 statutory budget proposal.
According to him, the increase was a result of the expected loan from the Commercial Bank in the sum of N500 billion.
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