Ise-Oluwa Ige
5 January 2009
The Police have requested the Attorney-General of the Federation to prosecute former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, over alleged official corruption and abuse of office with regards to revocation and allocation of lands in Abuja while in office.
The Police also advised those affected by el-Rufai's action while in office to go to court and claim damages against him.
A Police interim investigative report on alleged corrupt practices by el-Rufai while in office, signed by Commissioner of Police, Anti-Fraud Section 'D' Department (FCID), Abuja, Moses Anegbode, accused the former minister of under-hand dealings in the revocation and re-allocation of lands in the FCT.
The investigation on el-Rufai was triggered by a petition from the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation to the Inspector-General of Police.
The petition accused the former minister of official corruption and abuse of office in the handling of land allocation to NIPOST in Maitama.
Specifically, he was alleged to have revoked and re-allocated the NIPOST land to one of his friends.
After investigation of the subject-matter of the petition, the police indicted el-Rufai and recommended him for criminal prosecution.
In the recommendation, the Police said: "From the above mentioned findings, it is obvious that government parastatals' lands were revoked and laundered at a premium.
"This pattern of abuse of office and manipulations of the Abuja land reforms by private interest is an affront to equity, justice and transparency.
"Finally, it is the suggestion of the investigation that the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice in this present dispensation whose stance for zero tolerance on corruption and economic crimes as well as upholding the sanctity of rule of law, transparency and equity are well-known, should use his good offices to restore the NIPOST land back to the original owner, in order to minimize the huge economic loss incurred by Rosehill group.
"Meanwhile, Mallam el-Rufai be brought to book as nobody is above the law, by charging him to court for abuse of office, official corruption and should be made to pay appropriate compensation and restitution for the damages caused to both NIPOST and Rosehill group, the developer, please."
NIPOST had petitioned the Attorney-General of the Federation when Systems Property Development Consortium (SPDC) continued to develop the said property in defiance of a court order stopping all construction works on the site pending the resolution of the litigation over the land ownership.
NIPOST had reportedly gone into a partnership with a developer, Rosehill, to develop the central post office designed to serve seven districts in the FCT, and wrote to the former minister for approval, while the approval granted by FCDA on July 14, 2004, was relied upon for commencement of construction work in anticipation of the ministerial consent.
The Police in their findings claimed that "while they (Rosehill) were liaising with the office of the Minister of FCT, on the 20th January, 2006, the Development Control of FCDA and a company named Systems Property Development consortium SPDC jointly carried out a demolition exercise on NIPOST offices, notice board, borehole.
"Prior to this demolition, there was no letter of revocation of the site to NIPOST and on the 22nd February 2006, after the demolition of the properties on the site, ministry of FCT submitted a backdated letter of revocation of the plot to NIPOST. The letter was backdated 18th October, 2005.
"Our investigation shows that the site meant for public use as a District Post Office was allocated to an individual company SPDC who shared the same office building with el-Rufai and partners; a Quantity Surveying firm owned by the former minister of FCT at No.1 Kandi Close, off Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja."
The petition against el-Rufai by Rosehill to NIPOST which was subsequently forwarded to the AGF had seen the former minister suing the private firm at an Abuja High Court, for defamation and asking for N450 million as damages for collateral effect of the allegations in the petition on his integrity.
In their response to the defamation suit, Rosehill group, through their counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) filed a counter-claim for N200 million damages "for the embarrassment, pains, stress and energy dissipation caused the defendants by the institution of plaintiff's frivolous action."
In the defendants' statement of defence, they claimed that "owners of properties at the FCT were rendered homeless through compulsory acquisitions done by the plaintiff and which acquisitions were later found to have benefited him, his cronies, privies, companies and relatives."
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2009 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
Does anybody take this YarAdua's administration seriously? Yar and his Police issued Interpol and FBI Alert for Mr. El Rufai 3 weeks ago. Both the Interpol, the FBI and the Yar's Police know where Mr El-Rufai lives and goes to school in UK, how come he hasn't been arrested already? Because nobody cares what this confused administration says or does anymore. Even the oil companies openly flaunt his order to end gas flaring by Dec 31, 2008. Today gas flaring continues, unabatedly - more or less calling Yar's bluff to do his worst. For Yar and his clueless Police, b4 there can be any prosecution, there has to be a proven offense and in the absense of any offence, there cannot be an arrest. This administration's huffing & puffing in the media as if it has any authority, respect or vision is nothing but chicken scratch.