By Johnson Nwanuforo
Despite a court ruling that the plots of land at Lugbe Extension 1, along Airport Road, now known as Kyami District, Abuja, belonged to Minanuel Investment Limited purposely for mass housing, some officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) have continued to re-allocate the said parcel of land to third parties for other sundry considerations. In taking this brazen line of action, the FCTA and the FCDA officials in question seem to suggest that they are above the law and do not care a hoot about the anti-corruption campaign of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a recent post in an online housing portal, (www.housingnews.org.ng, p.4539), dated March 22, 2016, it was reported that “FCT Development Control Ignores Court Ruling, approves development of hotel on demolished MINANUEL Estate Land”. Now, this is said to have taken place despite that on November 11, 2013, Justice D.Z. Senchi of the FCT High Court, Apo, Abuja, in suit no. FCT/HC/CV/714/12 had ruled that “the fresh allocation of the plots to private individuals was illegal, null and void and the said allocations… are hereby set aside. Accordingly, the defendants (FCT Minister, FCTA and FCDA) are hereby restrained from taking possession or re-allocating same or any part thereof to any person or group of persons….”
The tragedy of what is going on in Minanuel Estate Land, Abuja, is that some officials of FCTA and FCDA, who are arrogantly disobeying a valid court judgment, are doing so under a political structure that has President Muhammadu Buhari, the anti-corruption czar, as its head. As far as the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is concerned, the President of Nigeria is the governor of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and the activities of the officials of FCTA and FCDA are subject to the control and directives of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory who, in all intents and purposes, acts under the delegated powers of the President of Nigeria. It is difficult to believe that President Buhari is at home with these transgressions of the law being perpetrated by officials of FCTA and FCDA.
As I write, there is no evidence anywhere that the judgment of Justice Senchi on this matter is on appeal. The issue at hand, therefore, is that since both parties to the case earlier resolved on November 11, 2013 (N.C.R Associates Limited, suing through its lawful attorney, Minanuel Investment Limited and the Minister of FCT & 2ors) are satisfied with the judgment of the court as there is no pending appeal against the judgment, why is the FCT Development Control, a department of the FCDA, re-allocating the land in question to third parties? Are officials of the FCTA and the FCDA pretending not to be aware that a valid court judgment affirmed Minanuel Investment Limited as owners of the land and also declared “null and void the re-allocation of plots… at Lugbe Extension 1, along Airport Road, now known as Kyami District, Abuja, to third parties…”? Are Nigerians being told that these officials are above the law?
From whatever perspective this matter is appraised, it must be the height of morbid impunity for some officials of the FCTA and the FCDA to blatantly and irresponsibly re-allocate plots of land at Lugbe Extension 1, along Airport Road, now known as Kyami District, Abuja, after a court had ruled that “the evidence before the court is that the title of the Plaintiff (Minanuel Investment Ltd) is still extant and it is not infected by any virus of revocation”. This is why it may have become imperative that President Buhari personally intervenes in this matter because it not only borders on his integrity as a man given to honesty and truthfulness, it also impinges on the image of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government as an anti-corruption crusading entity in Nigeria.
It is bad enough that some officials of FCTA and FCDA have unpatriotically decided to ridicule the judiciary by embarking on acts that clearly undermined the judgment of a court. It is even worse that in re-allocating the plots of land in which the purpose clause is mass housing, some officials of FCTA and FCDA, using the development control department of the FCT, are parceling out Minanuel Estate’s land to third parties for the building of hotels, etc. Even in a banana republic, the level of impunity that has been exhibited by some FCTA and FCDA officials with regard to the plots of land at Lugbe Extension 1, would not be condoned. And by any stretch of the imagination, Nigeria, under the Presidency of Buhari, cannot be said to be one of those banana republics that dot the landscape of the Third World.
In the final analysis, the point just has to be made that Nigeria is today a democratic society where the rule of law prevails. In this wise, the officials of FCTA and FCDA, who are behaving as if they own Nigeria and are accountable to nobody, must realise that the President of Nigeria today is a Muhammadu Buhari, a no nonsense leader who will not treat with levity attempts to desecrate the laws of the land. Perhaps, rather than make jest of the law by deliberately and mischievously undermining a valid court judgment, the officials in question should simply do the bidding of the law in this instance, which is, approve the building plan for Minanuel Investment Limited for the plots at Lugbe Extension 1, Abuja, as well as see to the removal of illegal structures on the land.
• Dr. Nwanuforo, a Political Scientist, wrote in from Maitama, Abuja.
