Posted on: 10:11 Thu, 11 Feb 2016



The Senate is exploring ways and means of
invoking sanctions against former President
Goodluck Jonathan and some former ministers
for allegedly appropriating reserved plots of
land in Abuja.

According to the Senate Committee on the
Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the plots
acquired by Jonathan and his ministers were
designated as green areas, flood drains, city
buffers, recreation centres, sewage lines, urban
farming and city monuments.

At a briefing yesterday, the chairman of the
Committee, Senator Dino Melaye, said the
illegally acquired areas fall within the highbrow
Maitama District.

Describing the action of Jonathan and his
ministers as “satanic”, Melaye blamed the
immediate past former Minister of the FCT,
Senator Bala Mohammed, for the “indiscretion”.

Besides Jonathan, the committee listed other
beneficiaries of the “land grab” to include
former Petroleum Minister Mrs. Diezani Alison-
Madueke and former Justice Minister
Mohammed Adoke.

Other beneficiaries include former Trade and
Investment Minister Olusegun Aganga; Acting
National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), Uche Secondus and FCT Executive
Director Ismaila Adamu.

Some of the beneficiaries have started erecting
structures on the plots, which were “hurriedly
allocated” in the twilight of the last
administration. Certificates of Occupancy were
hurriedly issued for the plots, the committee
alleged.

Melaye said: “Senator Bala Mohammed, in his
bid to satisfy some powerful Nigerians before
the end of his tenure, disregarded the wisdom
of his predecessors and the vision of the
founding fathers of Abuja.

“He went ahead to implement Messrs Fola
Consult Limited’s recommendation by allocating
these important features/endowments,
including the Maitama Hills, to these powerful
Nigerians.

“It is pathetic to state that one of the allottees
has erroneously burst a sewage conduit pipe
and the entire area messed up with offensive
odour which could trigger off serious epidemic
within that location.”

Faulting Mohammed’s defence of the
allocations, Melaye said the former minister’s
action amounted to maladministration, adding
that “it is satanic “.

He added that the committee plans to put a
Stop Work Order on the various construction
sites on the plots. Besides, the beneficiaries
are to replace all the trees they felled during
construction.

But Mohammed said the committee was
misinformed on the allocations.
In an advertorial published in some national
dailies, the former Minister said he never acted
outside the limits of his powers.

In the advertorial, signed on his behalf by his
Media Consultant, Mr. Emma Agu, Mohammed
insisted that the Abuja Master Plan had never
been inviolable.

According to him, the Abuja Master Plan is a
dynamic road map for the city’s land use and
infrastructure development, guided by the
demands of change and time.

He added that his actions were informed by the
need to ensure full utilisation of available
resources and that the allocations were made
in compliance with the Land Use Act.

According to him, construction was approved
after the allottees had obtained building plan
approvals from the Department of Development
Control of the FCT.

He urged the Senate committee to seek
adequate information from the FCT
administration, stressing that the allocations
could only be reversed by an incumbent
Minister of the FCT.