Abuja Estate Developers have faulted the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike over how N200 billion worth of houses that were demolished on the purported revocation of their land.
The group accused the Minister of undermining the court and rule of law in the demolition exercise and called on President Bola Tinubu to call him to order.
Addressing a press conference on the issue on Friday in Abuja, Counsel to the demolition victims, Lawyer Kalu Agu lamented that the pulling down of houses in the Sabon-Lugbe area of Abuja has rendered over 100 families homeless
The lawyer insisted that the owners of the demolished houses were legally and lawfully allocated the land by the authorities of the Federal Capital Development Authority, (FCDA) and had their title documents intact.
Agu explained that upon becoming aware of the move by the FCT Minister, the affected house owners filed a case against it at the High Court of the FCT and that all necessary court papers were duly served the Minister.
He said it was disheartened that Wike being a lawyer, could proceed to execute the demolition in spite of the pendency of the suit of the house owners.
The lawyer said “We have been briefed and we have the instruction of Home Builder Association of Nigeria to bring to the notice of Nigerians that the Minister, Nyesom Wike has been involved in illegal demolition of properties in Sabon Lugbe.
“Our clients have all the necessary title documents to Sabon Lugbe Abuja. Before they started the projects, they got building permits from the Development Control Unit of the FCT administration.
“It is on record that before development control will issue any permit, it will liaise with the Urban and Regional Planning who will verify wether the applicant is actually the real owner of the property he wants to develop and payment were made to the said development control.
‘However, to the surprise of everybody, the Minister without notice to anybody and our clients and by executive fiat, directed the said Development Control to go to Sabon Lugbe to destroy properties worth over N200billion.
“As we speak today, the said demolition has rendered many Nigerians homeless because people were resident in the said place and today, they are homeless.
“What bothers our clients is that for the Minister to enter such a place an order for the demolition, there must be a court order.
“The Minister cannot be a judge in his own case. He cannot say the people are land grabbers and at the same time issue orders for demolition.
“There is no such order from any competent court from the FCT. As of today, even when the Minister was aware that the said area has become a subject of litigation, he has been served the said processes, but in his characteristic manner of being a tyrant and someone who doesn’t care about institutions, gone ahead to demolish the estate.
“And of note, what Nigerians should know is that the reason behind the said demolition is because the Honorable Minister is interested in allocating that same place to other developers.
“As we speak today, the internet is awash with the news of the same place being allocated to another developer. And the said offer was made to the new developers on the 31st of October 2024, just yesterday.
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