BEVERLY HILLS, January 20, (THEWILL) –The House of Representatives on has confirmed the receipt of a petition on the N1 billion financial scandals earmarked for resettlement of indigenes for the acquisition of Centenary project.
According to the petitioners, only N26 million was paid as compensation out of the N1 billion approved by relevant authorities.
Herman Hembe, chairman, House Committee on FCT, disclosed that the scandal, which involved some unidentified FCT officials under the Bala Mohammed’s administration was reported by aggrieved indigenes.
THEWILL gathered that the sum of $2.8 billion was to be injected into the provision of engineering infrastructure by the 15 investors and also pay an additional sum of N4 billion as resettlement.
Speaking on the intent of the investigative hearing, Hembe, who spoke at the pre-Land Swap investigative hearing held at the National Assembly complex, Abuja, disclosed plans to summon the immediate past FCT minister and all the investors involved in the land swap policy.
According to him, the land swap investigation was sequel to the resolution passed by the House, and was aimed at unravelling owners of several undeveloped plots of land and other properties in the highbrow areas of the FCT, such as Maitama, Wuse, Asokoro and Utako.
“The House passed a resolution mandating this committee to establish the status of undeveloped plots in high brows areas of Abuja with fully serviced infrastructure. The idea is for the committee to identify such plots and recommend what should be done with them,” he said.
“You are aware that when you are given a land, you are also given the terms of development and time frame within which you are expected to develop the plot.
“Another issue is the issue of abandoned projects in the territory and to identify such projects and also find out why they were abandoned and suggest measures toward ensuring that such is not repeated again.
“Another area is the Land Swap Agreement of the FCT with private developers. There are eight Districts where these land swap arrangements had taken place and we are going to look at all these areas in our investigation,” Hembe said.
Story by David Oputah
