…Accuse FCT minister of land racketeering
BEVERLY HILLS, CA, October 31, (THEWILL) – Indigenes of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, under the umbrella of the Original Inhabitants Development Association (OIDA), Thursday, condemned the Federal Government’s compensation policy for indigenes and concluded that majority of them have not been compensated.
Similarly, OIDA has accused the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, of appropriating his office to perpetrate land racketeering in the territory and trading under the guise of Abuja land swap scheme.
Making a submission at the beginning of an investigation hearing over alleged improper land allocation as well as racketeering in the FCT from 2010 to date in Abuja on Thursday , the Galadimawa community and members of the association, urged the Federal Government to immediately midwife a transparent compensation arrangement that will adequately address the yearnings of the aborigines who are resident in their 854 communities in the last 37 years.
Representative of the community, Barr. Musa Baba Panya, informed the Bimbo Daramola-led House of Representatives ad-hoc committee set up to investigate the matter, that the 1978 compensation bill for Abuja was put at N2.8 billion, but up till now, the inhabitants have not been settled by the government.
According to the lawyer, “the law demands that you do not take possession until you pay compensation. But we still have uncompensated communities in the FCT, their land and titles have been taken away and given to third parties.”
He maintained that the so-called resettlement of some of the communities in Karu, new Nyanya, and Karshi, among others, in the territory have been partial, saying this negated the principle of justice and fairness, hence the need for the authorities to adequately compensate the people.
