Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike has explained what transpired between him and the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the SNECOU Group Limited, Chief Nicholas Ukachukwu, who decried the demolition of his investment on 214 hectares of land in the Asokoro District of the nation’s capital.
Ukachukwu had accused Wike of ordering the demolition without any court order despite pending valid two court orders from separate courts restraining him and the FCT administration from tampering with the property, claiming that the property was demolished because it was owned by an Igbo man, and not because the company violated any law.
Wike who reacted to the allegation in his monthly live media chat, said the land allocated to Ukachukwu did not have the approval of any minister as his predecessor.
The minister said the land-grabbing in Abuja is becoming rampant because some officials in the land department of his ministry had compromised.
“I have been doing this before. I will continue to do it. And nothing will happen. Criminals are criminals. They may come in different ways. I have never seen people like land-grabbing people in this place. I came in, I met so many petitions. One company came with different petitions, with different owners of properties.
“I summoned all of them. They came with their lawyers, senior advocates. And I said look what is this? Companies presented their own cases. Company A presented their own case, company B presented their own, company C, company D, Company E, I said okay, I am going to seek advice from external solicitors.
“I am not going to take advice from insiders, because the biggest fraud is that the land department has been compromised.
I sought the views of senior lawyers and told them, we need to do things differently.
“This land, by this so-called ethnic jingoist, was allocated when there was no minister. The minister left on May 29, 2023. By June the land was allocated by the director of lands.
“We all met and agreed that nobody should do anything on the land until we are able to make a final decision. You know what happened? These guys thought they were too smart and they started selling the land,” he said.
