KEY POINTS

• Senate orders Wike to stop demolishing FCT buildings over alleged government-backed land grabbing while probe continues.
• The National Assembly set up an ad hoc committee to report within two weeks on probe of Abuja demolitions.
• Illegal land occupation will not be tolerated irrespective of the status – Wike.

The house of representatives has urged the minister of the federal capital territory, Mr Nyesom Wike, to stop the demolition on structures in Abuja.

Only structures with demolition orders from a competent court should have been affected, lawmakers insisted.

The directive follows a motion raised by Senator Ireti Kingibe, who decried the demolition of properties in the FCT. And she said that the demolitions went against due process and caused significant hardship to residents who were affected. Many people lost properties worth billions of naira, Kingibe said.

In reaction, Senate President Godswill Akpabio established a seven man ad-hoc committee headed by Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin to probe the demolition activities. Besides Senators Victor Umeh, Jimoh Ibrahim, Abdullahi Yahaya and Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, the committee is expected to conclude its work after two weeks.

Wike defends action, shuns blackmail tactics

On the other hand, Minister Nyesom Wike upheld his stand over ongoing demolition exercise.

Accusations of injustice were dismissed, the government would not bow to blackmail, or sentiment.

What we were trying to do was to recover government land that was illegally acquired as well as enforcing ground rent payments, Wike explained.

He also warned no construction company or private citizen had the right to lay claim to government land without the necessary documentation.

On the revocation of land tied to Niger Delta activist, Chief Rita Lori Ogbebor, Wike stressed that valid claims of ownership must be backed by documents.

He added that even after so many years neither a legal paper nor a property is safe, and such properties which are being occupied without legal document remain the government’s property.

The minister added that influential figures or activists would not be treated any differently, saying ‘What is wrong is wrong.’ For instance, Julius Berger was asked to vacate its operational site in Abuja’s Central Business District, he said.

Assuring residents that Abuja would be developed on the basis of law and order, Wike said his administration would work to ensure accountability in the allocation of land and property rights.