The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, has said that he revoked the certificate of occupancy (C of O) of a huge plot of land belonging to Julius Berger in the Katampe district of Abuja, hours after he had dinner with the managing director of the German construction giant.
The minister spoke today at the flag-off ceremony of the design and construction of a 40-unit quarters for retired judges in Abuja.
At the event, attended by top dignitaries such as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, and the President of the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, the minister recounted how he secured the land for the proposed quarters.
He said: “My Lord, let me bring to your notice. You have seen this land here. When we were looking for where to get land to build, I was driving around looking for empty land and I got here and saw this empty land.
“I saw the big post: ‘Julius Berger’. I didn’t talk. I called the director of lands (and asked him): who owns that land? And he said: Julius Berger. When was it allocated? He said about fifteen, twenty years ago. Fifteen, twenty years ago? Nothing has been done? I didn’t bother.
“So, I invited the MD, Julius Berger. He came and we had dinner. I didn’t talk about the land.
“The next day, he was in the office and he saw the revocation letter as a matter of public interest!
“He called me and said but I had dinner with you. I said yes, we had dinner but we didn’t discuss the land.
“How will the government allocate land for more than 20 years for organisations to develop and they did not develop it? Thank God, they did not develop it and now we can have it.”
Wike revealed that 70 percent of funds for the project had been released after its approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) last month.
He said out of the 40 units to be constructed, 20 will be allocated to the FCT High Court, 10 to the Federal High Court, and 10 to the Court of Appeal.
He noted that post-retirement housing insulates judges from manipulation, interference and exposure to certain temptations.
