Mohammed Musa Bello, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT), has signed off choice land plots in massive scale for
himself and leaders of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in
a manner that underscores a worsening pang of corruption in public
space, SaharaReporters reports.
The beneficiaries of this massive round of land allocations
include APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu, and his wife, Senator
Remi Tinubu, both of whom used proxy names.
The land largesse has carefully been carved up among the
proverbial fat cats of the presidential seat of power in Abuja. The
Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari; former Secretary to
the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, who
currently faces trial for sundry corrupt enrichment; current SGF,
Boss Mustapha; former Director-General of the Department of State
Services (DSS), Lawan Daura; Minister of Transportation, Rotimi
Amaechi; Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika are among prominent
names whose allocations’ right of occupancy (R of O) have been
delivered.
The Minister personally took care of himself, members of the
federal cabinet, principal officers of the two chambers of the
legislature and many of President Muhammadu Buhari’s aides with two
choice allocations of 6,000 square metres each. Separate choice
plots in Maitama and Guzape districts were received by each
beneficiary. Other beneficiaries of the land allocation largesse
with only a plot each are non-principal officers of the National
Assembly and fringe aides within the Presidency.
Several of the beneficiaries in this land bazaar orchestrated by
the Minister have previously benefited from government allocations
in the FCT under different official positions. For instance, as
Tinubu, Saraki and Amaechi were recipients of choice land
allocations in Abuja whilst seating as governors and chairmen of
the Governors Forum respectively.
Following his appointment as FCT Minister, Bello had promised to
address all land racketeering in Abuja. He proceeded to inaugurate
two committees to address the public petitions. The committees
pored through case files, invited individuals involved and finally
made recommendations. However, as it shows, Bello’s interests had
switched to more pecuniary matters. Not a single recommendation of
the committees has attracted his attention.
Contrary to what is on ground, the Minister recently claimed
that his administration had resolved 500 lingering land
racketeering cases. Our sources assert that he has not attended to
any. Furthermore, none of the requests by organised official groups
from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for allocation of
land for low and medium-income estates to address peculiar housing
challenges has received his attention.
For staffers of the FCT, Bello has been a particularly indolent
Minister with established cases of sitting on budgetary
appropriations for utilities in the FCT wand continued instances of
elapsed budgetary provisions repeatedly returned to the
treasury.
Culled from SaharaReporters
References
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