Leadership (Abuja)
Ibrahim Biu
7 September 2008
An indigenous construction company, Abba Jaye and Sons (Nig.) Limited, has called on the federal government to return its 52 houses earlier taken over on lease by the defunct Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF).
The company also wants the 52 houses, which were taken away from it at various stages of completion returned following the failure of the government to fulfill its own part of the agreement reached between it and the defunct PTF in 1996.
The government had agreed to adequately compensate the company by providing it with another plot of land in a good area as well as the payment of N477m during one of the meetings held to resolve the issues at stake after the houses were taken over by the PTF at the end of an understanding based on trust and respect for the people involved in the agreement.
In a petition written by the company and signed by its managing director, Alhaji Abba Jaye, and submitted to the FCT senate probe committee on May 16, 2008, it demanded that since government had not been able to meet its obligations or fulfill part of the agreements, all the titles of the 52 houses should be returned to it.
The houses which are situated at Plot No. 780, Wuse II, Abuja were, however, not returned to its original owners as agreed.
A letter written to the company by the interim management committee of the PTF later said the company would be paid their N100m an offer which the latter rejected as falling short of the earlier agreement.
Alhaji Usman Abba Jaye told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that the defunct PTF had taken over the 52 houses in 1996 which were then at various stages of completion, under a lease agreement that the houses when completed, will be used by staff of the company for 12 years only.
The managing director explained that the company was granted the rights of occupancy for the land on which the 52 houses were built in 1990 and its CofO in 1991.
The building plan approval was issued in August, 1996 after the necessary fees were paid.
The managing director of the company, Alhaji Usman Abba explained that when the company learnt that the houses were to be sold by the el-Rufai administration, it protested.
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