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.Says let heaven fall
.Hands Over 50 Vehicles to security agencies
.As Senate orders suspension of ongoing demolition by FCDA
.Summons Wike
Ignatius Okorocha and Favour Ishember, Abuja
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barr Nyesom Wike on Thursday vowed to intensify ongoing demolition of illegal structures in Abuja even as he declared total war on land grabbers.
He said no amount of blackmail from any quarter will stop government current efforts to sanitize property development in the city stressing “let heaven fall”.
Addressing the issue of land allocation in Abuja, the Minister said that his administration will not tolerate blackmail or illegal occupation of government land insisting that anyone seeking to acquire land must follow the proper procedures and obtain formal approval.
He spoke while presenting 50 Hilux vehicles to security agencies in the territory on Thursday in Abuja,
According to him, “let me use this opportunity to tell Nigerians and residents of Abuja we are not afraid of blackmail.
“In fact, you cannot be in this kind of position if you say you don’t want to be blackmailed particularly as regards this Abuja. There are so many land grabbers”
“Some of us have come to put our feet down. Let heaven fall … It is feeling better that heaven comes down now. So I will not be fasting again to go to heaven. We will stop anybody who thinks that he can obtain government land without formal approval. We will not look at your face.
“If you like, you can be a civil rights activist. If you like, you can be a television talker. What is wrong is wrong.
“No amount of blackmail can stop us. People take government property without approval, without document and I have told people that there was a government yesterday, the government did not take any step does not mean that another government will come today and will not take steps. ”
Continuing he said, “What is wrong is wrong. No amount of blackmail can stop us.”
Meanwhile, Wike has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to prioritizing security in Abuja, as he gave out 50 Hilux vehicles to security agencies in the territory.
He stressed that security is the cornerstone of any government, and that his administration is dedicated to providing the necessary logistics to support federal security agencies.
Wike highlighted that the provision of funding in the budget has enabled the purchase of brand-new vehicles for security agencies. In the last three to four months, 50 vehicles were provided, and an additional 50 are being handed over. This brings the total number of vehicles provided to 100.
He noted that his administration is taking a proactive approach to security, rather than reacting to incidents after they occur.
He also noted that the government is working to enhance security in satellite towns, rural areas, and the city.
“So the centre of government is security. But once their people can have confidence that they can sleep with their two eyes closed, then you know that so many other things will follow. Thank you.
“The last three, four months, we gave out 50 of these vehicles to federal security agencies. Now again, we are providing another 50. Brand new, not fairly used.I want to make emphasis on not fairly used. Brand new. And like I said last time, we must not give space.
“We must not allow these criminals to strike before we go in. We have to take the war to them. Let them know that we are serious.
“And so during the 32nd period, make sure that we don’t give them any gap. I don’t want anybody to say because there was no vehicle before we could reach there, something has happened”.
In addition to providing vehicles, Wike’s administration is also building 12 police divisions across the six Area Councils. This initiative aims to strengthen security presence and response times in these areas.
Meanwhile, worried
by the magnitude of destruction of property of residents of Federal Capital Territory Abuja by the authorities of FCDA, Senate on Thursday ordered the Minister of FCT to suspend the exercise.
This is as the upper chamber Senate has set up an adhoc committee to investigate the demolition of buildings in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT by the Federal Capital Development Authority, FCDA.
It also summoned the Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike, to appear before it to explain the reasons behind the demolitions, which have made many residents to cry out.
The resolutions followed a motion by Senator Ireti Kingibe (LP FCT), who expressed concern over the illegal demolition of structures in the nation’s capital and called for an immediate stop to further demolitions.
The Red Chamber particularly ordered the FCDA to halt ongoing demolitions of property in the Territory within the next two weeks pending the report of its adhoc committee constituted to probe the issue.
The adhoc committee, to be chaired by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin, has the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Lola Ashiru; Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Tahir Monguno, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, Senator Sahabi Ya’u, Senator Victor Umeh, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, Senator Idiat Adebule and Senator Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, as members.
The Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who announced the composition of the committee, gave it two weeks to submit its report.
Akpabio while reading the resolution of the Senate, said: “The Senate urges the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to stop further demolitions of structures, except those ordered by courts of competent jurisdictions, until the adhoc committee constituted by the Senate to ascertain the propriety or otherwise of the exercise concludes its investigation and interface with the FCT administration within the next two weeks.”
Kingibe in her lead debate said that in recent times, the demolition exercise in the FCT was no longer based on reasons that necessitated the demolition.
She urged the Senate to be further concerned that the current demolition in the FCT was not in line with due process of court orders to demolish.
“As such, a cross section of individuals had suffered untold hardships occasioned by massive demolition, which has led to a loss of properties worth billions of naira.
“Also concerned that at the moment, an estate by name, Messrs Paulosa, for which late Colonel Paul Osakpawan Ogbebor is the chairman, is currently under revocation and demolition.
And from reliable information, the said plot of land was allocated to him in 1984 with requisite title document.
“And further concerned that the owner of this estate was a patriotic Nigerian who served the nation meritoriously and one of the first intakes of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, with registration Number 001,” Kingibe said.
She urged the Senate to accordingly resolve to urge the FCT administration to halt the ongoing revocation and demolition of the said property, “as it does not fall within the purview of the reasons for the massive demolition being carried by the FCDA.”
Senator Kingibe also advocated that
all demolitions should follow due process while the Senate set up a committee to investigate the matters arising from the demolition.
However, Senator Sunday Karimi (APC Kogi West) in his contribution said the Senate needs to hear from the Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike, before ordering a halt to the demolitions.
“If you look at this motion, the presenter said, a specific land allocation was mentioned belonging to one Paul Ogbebor.
“We don’t know anything about this thing and we are just coming because of this to tell the minister to stop?
“There is need to investigate this matter before giving any directive. We must hear from the minister. But we have to hear before we say stop demolition.
“Let’s hear from the Minister. You cannot shave a man’s head at his back. We need to hear from the Minister,” Karimi said.
The Chairman Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire (APC Ondo Central), however disagreed with Karimi, saying that the request that the Senate should call on the FCT minister to halt further demolitions was in order.
He said: “Mr. President, with respect I disagree with Mr. Karimi. I think we need to be fair to everyone. There is before us an allegation that says certain steps are to be taken which will culminate in demolition. Are we saying that we should allow the place to be demolished while we are trying to look into it?”
In his response, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio agreed with the chairman Senate Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters, saying “my thought is in line with yours. If we just say, continue the demolition, and then we start investigation, what are we then investigating?”
He, thereafter, read the resolution of the Senate calling on the FCT Minister to halt further demolitions of property in the FCT pending the investigative report of its adhoc committee chaired by the Deputy Senate President.
No fewer than 30 policemen have been accused of leading hoodlums suspected to be landgrabbers to demolish the property of a real estate company in the Okpanam community, in the Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the armed policemen and the landgrabbers, who were said to be acting on the order of a landgrabber identified simply as Okeke, aka Ogidi, invaded the premises with bulldozers around 1 am to embark on the unauthorised demolition.
Speaking with our correspondent on Sunday, the Managing Director of the estate, Iyke Dike, claimed that the landgrabbers had been demolishing property at odd hours in the estate without leaving any traces, adding that luck ran out of them during the last operation in the early hours of Tuesday, July 23.
The realtor said, “For some months now, we have been experiencing some ugly experiences of people pulling down fences and gatehouses of buildings on our estate in Asaba at midnight and there have been no traces.
“All this while, the police have been handicapped because there is no evidence to prove anything. As God would have it, on Tuesday, July 23, around 1 am, an unknown number called me. I didn’t pick up the call because I was tired. I felt it was one of my marketers calling at odd hours.
“The call became very persistent around 3 am and at a point, my engineer called me. I prayed and was about to call him back when my staff members started knocking at my door. I opened the door and they said people were already breaking down the fence of my estate.”
Dike said before going to the scene, he went to carry policemen of the Special Protection Unit of the Delta State Police Command assigned to him and also informed members of the community where the estate is located and the Divisional Police Officer, Okpanam Division about the incident.
He said, “When I got to the site with my assigned policemen, I was amazed to see a troop of armed policemen with over 10 vans, two Toyota Hilux vehicles, and two bulldozers pulling out. We got out of the car and started asking who sent them but they ignored all of us.
“Observing a gap between those driving the Hilux and the policemen that came with the landgrabbers for the demolition, we stopped the Hilux vehicles and demanded who sent them. The policemen assigned to me even approached their colleagues to speak with them so they could listen to me.
“All of a sudden, one of the policemen who accompanied the landgrabbers cocked his gun, shot one of the tyres of my vehicle and also shot one of the policemen attached to the SPU assigned to me who was appealing to them to listen to me.”
The realtor said things were about to escalate when some community members stormed the scene and joined them in demanding who sent them to demolish his property.
He said, “When the policemen observed that they were outnumbered, they ran away but we apprehended three. One of the operators of the bulldozers jumped down and also ran away but we caught the other operator. We also apprehended one of the persons who drove the Hilux.
“The DPO met us there and when we asked who sent them, one of them, precisely the one who drove the Hilux, said it was a landgrabber, one Okeke, aka Ogidi, who owns a popular hotel in Asaba. Different weapons were also found inside the vehicles recovered from the suspects.
“When the state Commissioner of Police was informed, he said the matter should be transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department, Panti, Yaba, Lagos State where the matter is being handled.”
In the videos provided, our correspondent sighted the Toyota Hilux vehicles, guns and bullets that were recovered, and one of the arrested suspects linked to the demolition. The suspect was heard mentioning that they acted on the orders of Okeke, aka Ogidi.
A video showing the policeman who was shot by his colleague writhing in pain was also seen by our correspondent.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Edafe Bright, when contacted, said he would do his findings and get back to our correspondent but had yet to do so as of the time this report was filed.
Several calls made to his mobile number to get his reaction were unanswered.
Edafe had yet to respond to a text message sent to his mobile number as of the time this report was filed.