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Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) says he’ll do anything he can to deal with anyone involved in land-grabbing in Abuja.
Wike issued the warning on Thursday, May 9, 2024, when officials of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), Abuja chapter, visited him.
The minister condemned the illegal acquisition of land in the FCT, saying many people some staff members of the FCT contribute to the land-grabbing problem in Abuja.
Wike said, “Land grabbing is not new. Some of your people are part of it, some staff of FCT are part of it.
“As a government, we will do all we can to see that we deal squarely with anybody that is involved, no matter how highly- placed he or she might be.
“It is a terrible situation we found ourselves in. People grabbing land; people illegally acquiring land, just for the purpose of becoming rich overnight.”
Wike alleged that people write the FCTA demanding land allocation to develop a certain number of houses in the city, but instead of developing the land, they sell it.
“They will do all they can; take our land and sell it to people for development.
“For me, that is not helping us to reduce the housing deficit, no. That is just a way of taking government land and enriching yourselves at the expense of the government.
“Yes government cannot sell land, so why will the government give out land for a housing estate and then you are selling the land?
“The government can as well sell the land itself if that is the case,” the minister queried.
To address the challenge, Wike said developers must show financial capacity before land would be allocated to them.
He said the chances of developers getting land allocation would be boosted if a reputable commercial bank wrote an undertaking confirming their financial capacity.