…As Landowners Blame Local Chiefs For Illegal Land Transactions

Over the weekend, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) pulled down over 137 unlawful dormitories, motels, and other facilities in Iddo Sarki, a village near the University of Abuja main campus.

In accordance with a Ministerial directive to remove all contraventions and illegality from the nation’s capital, a combined team of the FCT Ministerial Committee on City Sanitation, the Department of Development Control, the Department of Security Services, and other relevant agencies carried out the exercise.

The FCT Minister was infuriated, according to Comrade Ikharo Attah, Chairman of the Ministerial Committee on City Sanitation, by people’s continuous disrespect for warnings to stay away from  local Chiefs who have  no authority to sell lands or transfer any valid title to buyers of such land, according to the provisions of the Land Use Act. 

According to Attah, the exercise was a quick response to avoid further destabilizing the city’s growth plans and to save desperate businessmen and people from financial catastrophe.

He expressed regret that some persons continued to disregard timely warnings and enter into land deals with local chiefs without the approval of the relevant government.

He further added that if the unlawful hostel blocks and other development projects on the site had followed official procedures, the millions of Naira invested would have been correctly directed if the illegal hostel blocks and other development projects had followed official procedures.

He said that, the shortcut process undertaken by the investors had not only infringed heavily on extant laws, but distorted Abuja Master plan,  while leading into collosal economic waste.

According to Attah , “FCT Minister has avowed commitment to espousing investment in the city, but would not tolerate illegalities and disobedience to the provisions of the Land Use Act. 

” FCTA is pained about what is going on here. FCT Minister had briefed the Directors of Development Control , security services and DRTS, and had given us a matching order to stop what he termed as extreme illegality here.

” These people were taken advantage of the closeness of the University of Abuja to sell every available land here. You can imagine that someone here had built a house that run into hundreds of millions of Naira, without a proper approval,  but just based on ordinary agreement signed with the Chief on foolscap sheet , that for me is an aberration. 

He continued; ” No one here has any allocation.  It is very sad and worrisome that Abuja is going this way. What the natives are telling people here is that if you buy land and build, before Development Control will come you would have recovered your money.

” The Minister has ordered that this place be cleared as a signal to people. Those who wants to build hostles for student can approach the administration and the University management and do it on building operate and transfer ( BOT ) or build,  operate  and own (BOO) arrangements with a proper allocation and development approval from government. 

” The Chiefs have denied that they never sold any land, while the buyers who insist they bought the land from the chiefs are now lamenting. We asked them to produce papers of approval, but none of them have done that. They said they bought the land between N2 million and N7 million. 

” We have done this, because we have the mandate to secure the city within the context of the Land Use Act .

Speaking earlier, the Acting Director,  the Department of Control, Garba Kwakur, hinted that the land in which the illegal development was going on had been allocated to the Nigerian Navy. 

Kwakur further added that while the developers have no valid title to the land, the buildings erected on it had no approval. 

According to him ; ” All this area has long been allocated, part of this land has been allocated to the Nigerian Navy,  they have complained about encroachment.

” We have come here several times and sensitised them to stop this illegal development,  FCT Administration is not very happy with what is going on here.

” We have marked the illegal buildings several times,  and they were cleaned off. We have met with the Chiefs and youth leaders on the need to get permit before any expansion,  but they have not done that.

Mr. Olusade Adesola, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Friday announced that the Administration will engage extensively in staff development commencing in the third quarter of 2021.

This, he claims, is part of an effort to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal Capital Territory Administration’s (FCTA) employees in order to provide better service to inhabitants of the nation’s capital and Nigerians in general.

He made the announcement when the 57th President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Mrs Comfort Eyitayo visited his office in Garki, Abuja.

Adesola hinted that the Nigerian Civil Service, which is the engine room of government, has undergone a paradigm shift from what it used to be to a digitally driven one, run by highly intelligent and reputable officers, in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja by his Press Secretary to FCT Permanent Secretary, Tony Odey.

He, on the other hand, advocated for the necessity to lubricate the system in order to ensure the long-term viability of the highly digitalized and capable Civil Service by continuous upscaling of officers’ skills and capacity.

According to him : “The Civil Service is no longer what it used to be. Today, when some people come around, they ask, civil servants, you are proficient in computer like this? Today, we are building a Civil Service that is run by persons of repute, who know what it takes to run the administration.

“Just as you know, the Civil Service is the engine room of government and if the engine is faulty, the whole system cannot function well. So you must support the engine to keep it well lubricated. So that its operation can be effective and efficient.

“Therefore, we have to upscale our skills periodically and that is why we are investing heavily this year in the development of our personnel”.

The Permanent Secretary further stated that in order to ensure that the trainings giving to staff add value to the system, the Administration will prioritize partnership with some established Government Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations, such as Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), Centre for Management Development (CMD), Public Service Institute of Nigeria, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), among others.

While speaking on the proposed ICAN International Convention Centre in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary said that having such Centre in the nation’s capital city has the capacity to boost the tourism potentials of the Territory and the country at large, besides galvanizing other major developments to the country.

He, however, assured the President that the FCT Administration and the Institute will continue to deepen its relationship for mutual benefit of both organizations.

Earlier, the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Mrs. Comfort Eyitayo said the essence of the visit was to introduce herself as the new President of the Institute and also to pledge the Institute’s commitment to work closely with the FCT Administration for the symbiotic benefit of both organizations.

Eyitayo further used the opportunity to thank the Permanent Secretary for working with the Minister of the FCT, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello and the FCT Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu to ensure prudent management of the Administration’s resources.

The ICAN President further reminded the Permanent Secretary of the earlier request of the Institute to be allocated thirty hectares of land in Abuja for the purpose of building the Institute International Convention Centre.

Ahead of Eid Kabir, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has issued a warning to livestock traders selling along major traffic corridors in the nation’s capital , adding that violators will be prosecuted.

The warning was made by Comrade Ikharo Attah, Chairman of the FCT Ministerial Committee on City Sanitation, while leading a team on a raid of an illegal ram market near Dutse Alhaji on Friday.

He stated that the administration would go to court to seek forfeiture orders against offenders.

Attah, who pointed out that the Administration had previously sacked the market, warned that rams discovered in illegal mark-ups would be killed.

While speaking to news men shortly after the raid Attah explained that , “We want to get the ram selling very organised but we found out that people appear not to be willing to sell rams in a organised manner. We have given them points where they can sell rams so that those who want to buy will do so and sacrifice to Allah in line with the teachings of Islam, but to our utmost shock, But persons just want to do what they like and they went to Dutse Alhaji, around the Public Service institute to create a ram market which we had sacked in 2019.

“What we did today, we saw that the rams came and we rushed there but before we got there they had evacuated the rams and ran away. We want to insist that everyone who wants to sell rams in this city must do that in only designated areas. We have the Dei-Dei ram market, the Kugbo ram market and all the abattoirs in Abuja which also have their ram markets attached and some few designated selling points in the city center.”

He also warned that, “We will be confiscating rams that people bring and sell on unapproved areas and we will be taking them to court, praying the judges to grant us forfeiture order and when we get these orders we give all the rams we seized to the orphanages and less privilege people to use for their Sallah celebrations.”

However , the Head of Monitoring and Inspection, AEPB, Mr. Kaka Bello, while reacting to the sudden reappearance of ram sellers in the area, said the Administration will re-enforce the evacuation order on the illegal market.

Recounting the earlier evacuation order, Kaka said, “If you remember some years back there was an illegal market there which we just received information that the ram market is back. Having removed the market before now and warned the ram sellers not to comeback there but unfortunately we received an information that they have commenced sales of ram there and that is why we are here and then make sure that we remove them and prosecute them but when we got there they have already left, but we will keep on monitoring, to make sure they don’t come back and if they do we will not hesitate to confiscate the rams and the owners and then charge them to court.”

He asked the livestock sellers to move to the designated markets, warning that the FCTA will not condone situations where people take advantage of festive periods to litter the streets and road corridors with livestock, as “its unhealthy and we will not allow that.”

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has taken a variety of precautions to prevent Cholera from spreading and to provide the best possible care to those who have become ill.

To confirm the prevalence of Cholera, the FCT is conducting ongoing monitoring on communities with suspected cases in all of the villages in the six Area councils.

This was stated in a statement signed by Malam Abubakar Sani, Senior Special Assistant to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, and made accessible to journalists in Abuja.

The statement reads in parts ; “The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has taken a number of steps to prevent the spread of Cholera and to offer the best possible care to individuals who have been infected.

“Some of the measures already taken from early May 2021 when we started having the diarrheal disease in the FCT include: Formation of Cholera Emergency Operation Centres and appointment of an Incidence Manager and other relevant medical personnel along with Stakeholders from the FCT Water Board, Abuja Environmental Protection Board, Rural Water and Sanitation Agency [RUWASA) etc, who are also in the team; Prepositioning of Drugs and Consumables for the free treatment of all identified cases in both Secondary and Primary Care Facilities of the FCT; Provision of free portable water through water tankers from the FCT Water Board to all affected communities; Training and Sensitization of Health Care Providers in both Secondary and Primary Healthcare facilities including some private ones.

He continued ; “Community Sensitization on causes and means of treating and prevention of Cholera. All communities that have outbreak are being visited and monitored by relevant medical personnel and other stakeholders; Sensitization of the General Public through the media on all issues concerning the Cholera Outbreak and preventive measures; and High level engagement of all the Six [6] Area Councils Chairmen, Religious and Traditional Leaders in the Six [6] Area Councils.

“As at 8th July, 2021, the FCT has recorded Five hundred and fourteen (514) suspected cases. Out of this number, Eight [8] laboratory investigations were confirmed to be Cholera.

“The FCT Administration is also working very closely with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency on all the important interventions to end the scourge of the disease in the Territory”, the statement further stated.