…insists it’s no longer business as usual

Lere Olayinka, Media Aide to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike on Public Communications has alleged that those making allegations of land grabbing against his principal are only angry it is not business as usual any longer.

Olayinka in an interview, noted that people are not happy with what the FCT minister is doing in Abuja, but the allegations of grabbing other peope’s land are not true.

Speaking specifically about a land involving Chief (Mrs) Rita Lori-Ogbebor and Paulosa Nigeria Ltd, Olayinka stressed that the woman’s late husband knew the history and truth about the land, with the understanding that the land does not belong to him.

According to the aide, the land was allocated temporarily to construction companies that got contracts in the 80s and the contractors are expected to leave after concluding their work.

Olayinka said while others left, Paulosa didn’t leave and after his death, the family is trying to inherit a big parcel of government land.

The Minister’s media aide said: “Land grabbing is just a cliché that people use because Wike is doing things differently now. He is insisting that if you must own land in the FCT, you must own it legally, you must own it, not because you know him or because you are from the South or North. He is operating the FCT as it should be. A lot of people are not happy.

“The issue on the front burner now is the one a woman, Chief (Mrs) Rita Lori-Ogbebor, brought to the media, sponsoring some social media content creators to make noise. The issue is simple. You are saying that someone grabbed your land, does the land in question belong to you? It never belonged to her husband, who was the owner of Paulosa Nigeria Ltd.

“The land was allocated to construction companies that got contracts in the 80s. That area of Abuja is called Life Camp, because construction companies built camps there for their workers; that is why it is called Life Camp. They were given allocations to temporarily use the land as a temporary site office. When a contractor gets a job to construct a road and you choose to say, ‘Contractor, take and use my family land as your office,’ when the contractor finishes his job, is the contractor not supposed to leave the land?

“In this case, Paulosa, one of the contractors, did not leave. Paulosa built permanent structures on the land and rented the structures out to Lebanese mostly and was collecting rent for close to 40 years. Other construction companies that had the same opportunities left. Costain shared a fence with the land Paulosa was claiming and now Costain had left. The only construction company claiming ownership of land at that place till today is Paulosa.

“You may ask why Paulosa is claiming ownership of land when other contractors given temporary allocation the same way had left. The issue is simple, people still believe that it is business as usual, that in Nigeria, we can do whatever we like, we can make noise, we whip up sentiments, raise emotion, go to television stations and cry, ‘Oh, my husband was a soldier, he fought for Nigeria!’ Yes, the husband was a soldier, but she failed to tell Nigerians that her husband was also a contractor after being a soldier.

“Her husband (the owner of Paulosa) got a contract to build underground drainage in Abuja and collected his pay. If Paulosa collected his money, why should Paulosa now take government land? If they knew that the land actually belonged to them as the woman is claiming, why did they write to the government in 2020, seeking approval to own the land permanently? They wrote to the government asking for the right of occupancy to own the place. They did that when the owner of the company had died.

“The questions I ask here are – Why didn’t the owner of the company, her husband, apply to the government before he died? Why didn’t the owner claim ownership of the land when he was alive? He knew the history. He knew that he was not the owner of the land. But the moment he died, some people saw the opportunity of inheriting a big parcel of land, so they asked the government to approve the land for them.”

He further argued the ownership of the Abuja land in question, challenging Mrs Lori-Ogbebor to produce documents if she has contrary evidence to his submission.

“At the time that land was allocated, it had never been allocated to any human being. The first permanent allocation, right of occupancy that was given on that land was the one recently given. The mistake people are making is that the FCT revoked allocation, no. There was no allocation to Paulosa at all. If that woman knows what she is talking about, let her come to the public. The Senate has called for an investigation. Let her take her documents to the Senate. Let the FCT also take its documents to the Senate,” he said.