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Nigeria: FCT Probe - 'Abuja Land Allocated to 9-Day Old'
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This Day (Lagos)
8 May 2008
Posted to the web 8 May 2008
Sufuyan Ojeifo
Abuja
The Senate Committees probing the sale of Federal Government houses and other related matters yesterday confronted former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, with documentary evidence on how a nine-day-old baby, Aisha Abubakar, benefited from the reallocation of the revoked plots of land hitherto owned by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
But el-Rufai in a swift riposte, said it was not his responsibility to go through the details of all land files.
He stressed that the committee should confront the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS) and the Development Control Department (DCD) with the specific reallocation of plot to the baby.
The baby was one of the 19 persons that were allocated the 19 plots, which the DCD of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) converted to an estate when the plots were applied for.
The committee said the certificates of occupancy (C of Os) for the 19 plots were collected by one of the former aides to el-Rufai, one Mr. Cyril Ezeamaka.
According to the document from which the Vice-Chairman of the Senate Committee on FCT, Senator Anthony Agbo, read from, the baby was born on 24th November 2004, applied for the plot of land on November 29, 2004 and got the plot allocated to her on December 2, 2004.
El-Rufai said he approved the recommendation of the DCD to convert the 19 plots of land situated at No. 39 to 49 Cadastral Zone Jabi-Abuja to an estate when the beneficiaries of the plots of land applied.
Unimpressed by his response, the Committee said the allocation to the minor was contrary to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution which, according to them, stipulated that only a person who has attained 18 years was entitled to a plot of land anywhere in the country.
The controversial 19 plots of land revoked and reallocated to 19 individuals were converted to an estate which, according to the Committee, was being constructed by a company owned by one of the beneficiaries, Alhaji Umar Othman, said to be a close associate of el-Rufai.
It was at this point that Senator Smart Adeyemi said the 19 plots in question had been merged and given to one Mr. Othman who was alleged to be a close friend to el-Rufai.
El-Rufai retorted: "Then you should have asked your question. I am under oath; I don't own the plot. If that is what you are getting at why can't you say it straight away?"
He continued: "Don't play on my intelligence. Mr. Chairman, sir, it is not fair. I am under oath sir; you know the gravity of swearing by the Quran. If you want to know the details of the plots that Othman is developing, call them, they are living."
The document bandied by the Committee in respect of the revoked NNPC plots showed that all applicants for the revoked plots applied for them between 29th and 30th November 2004.
They were said to have been given approval two days later.
But one of the beneficiaries, Binta Musa Zango, was said to have been allocated the plot of land even before she applied a day later.
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Another beneficiary, Fatima Abdullahi Bello, was said to have been granted approval on December 27, 2004, the same day she applied for her land.
El-Rufai told the Committee: "While I will be ready to take responsibility for any actions carried out by my subordinates when I was minister, it is unfair for this committee to ask me to explain when a clerk does not do his job.
"By the time the ministerial approval comes to be, it is proper of me to assume that everyone has done his job. Mr. Chairman, I take responsibility for everything, but I am not a clerk. They don't bring policy files to me. The officials who handle these things are there."
It is only in Nigeria that people can make such crazy claims and get away free. el-Rufai wants the committee to talk his body to whom one of the lands was was given to instead of himself. He also exonorates himself from the ill of allocating a parcel of land to a 9-day old baby, Aisha Abubakar, by saying that he is not a clerk. What a country? It borders on corruption and ignorance of the rule of law.
It is only in Nigeria that people can make such crazy claims and get away free. el-Rufai wants the committee to talk to his body to whom one of the lands was given to instead of himself. He also exonorates himself from the ill of allocating a parcel of land to a 9-day old baby, Aisha Abubakar, by saying that he is not a clerk. What a country? It borders on corruption and ignorance of the rule of law.
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