Former FCT Minister Aliyu Moddibo Umar yesterday said the late President Umaru Musa Yar'adua had warned him not to allocate any land to either his wife or children.
Moddibo Umar said the controversial plot of land was originally allocated to a non-governmental organisation-First Ladies Peace Mission.
Former First Lady Turai Yar'adua had dragged First Lady Patience Jonathan to court over the revocation of the land allegedly allocated to her NGO in 2008 and re-allocated to Mrs Jonathan by the FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed, for the building of a secretariat.
Umar, who was a minister in 2008, said he allocated the land to the NGO not an individual.
Umar, who spoke with the Voice of America, Hausa service yesterday, claimed that the concept of the land was changed by his successor Senator Adamu Aliero and re-allocated to Turai's NGO.
"When I became minister, I brought the idea for the building of the secretariat as a legacy the former first lady would leave behind. I consulted the former president and advised him on the project after she became the leader of the African First Ladies Mission. I told him that the NGO needed a secretariat to build an edifice just like the Women Centre built by late Maryam Babangida and the National Hospital built by Maryam Abacha.
"He (Yar'adua) agreed and told me to look for a land. When I eventually found the land, I prepared a Certificate of Occupancy and the structural design of the proposed secretariat before I reported back to him. He appreciated the effort and directed me to meet her with the proposal.
"After a discussion, she accepted the idea and set up a committee comprised of the FCT and Foreign Affairs officials, Maryam Abacha, late Murtala Muhammad's wife and Patience."
VOA reported that it contacted Aliero but that he declined to comment on the tussle.
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