MINISTER of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has insisted that he would not return the lands of the Nigeria Customs Service revoked by the FCT administration.
The minister made this known while responding to the plea by the Customs’ Acting Comptroller-General, Adewale Adeniyi, who visited him on Wednesday, October 18, to make a case for the affected lands.
Wike had ordered FCTA to revoke unused plots of land, including those belonging to some top politicians, organisations and government agencies.
Responding to the plea, Daily Trust quoted the minister as saying, “I read your letter on the revoked land, very bad; very bad; very bad, but what do I do? When we gave you the land, you refused to use it; FCT will now sell it to you, and when we give you a Certificate of Ownership, you pay our ground rent.
“I will give you the opportunity to buy the land from FCT and give you the value of the land now,” he said.
Wike lamented how government agencies were allocated lands in FCT and refused to develop them.
The Customs boss also requested land to build primary and secondary schools for the children of the more than 2,000 Customs officers residing in the FCT.
The minister assured his guest that he would consider the second request but on the condition that it would be developed within a specific period.
He asked the Customs to bring the application for authorization by the FCT administration.
Wike also said the land would be revoked if Customs failed to develop it on time.
Another condition the minister gave was for the organisation to pay ground rent when due.
Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.