Umbrella body of the original natives of the nation’s capital, Abuja, Original Inhabitants Development Association of Abuja, (OIDA), have asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately arrest the former Minister of FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed and top officials of the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS) and Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) over the Senate’s revelations that they illegally allocated land to their cronies in green areas within Maitama district extension of Abuja.
In a statement today, the natives said: “the allocation of land in green areas meant for natural conservation and tourism is a breach of public trust and gross violation of the Abuja masterplan by the ex-minister, Bala, who coincidentally was charged with protecting such lands.”
The statement signed by OIDA President, Pastor Danladi Jeji, said “this has vindicated our earlier stance against renaming of Maitama District Extension as Goodluck Jonathan District in 2012 because we discovered that it was meant to hoodwink ex-President Goodluck Jonathan into unknowingly validating massive corruption in the illegal sharing of land allocations in the district. We wondered then, why such a district was not named after the founder of the city, General Murtala Muhammed but named after a sitting president.”
Others were allocated plots of land, in green areas meant for flora, fauna and tourism activities around Maitama district extension, in gross violation of the Abuja Masterplan.
The Senate committee threatened to order “immediate revocation” of the affected plots of land located in the Maitama district extension. It said the plots of land deliberately allocated to Jonathan and others in a green area fell short of the expectations of the minister and other public officers in the FCT administration
Senator Melaye listed other beneficiaries of similar plots to include late National Security Adviser, Andrew Okoye Azazi; former Justice Minister and Attorney-General of the Federation, Muhammed Bello Adoke; former Bauchi State governor, Isa Yuguda; and the acting National Chairman of PDP, Uche Secondus.
He said the committee on FCT visited the area and saw workers erecting structures on the plots but directed that work should immediately stop on construction of buildings in the area. [myad]
