Residents of an Abuja compound have cried out after Nyesom Wike revoked their land and issued a notice for them to immediately vacate or face severe consequences.
A spokesperson for the estate of Paul Ogbebor, a retired army colonel who was the first cadet enrolled at the Nigerian Defence Academy, said Mr Wike’s order had sent the entire compound of multiply families into endless trauma, urging him to reconsider the decision to avoid inflicting untold humanitarian crisis in the neighbourhood.
The compound in Life Camp, a working-class neighbourhood just west of Abuja city centre, was reported to be as large as 2.2 hectares (22,000 square metres) and was first allocated to Mr Ogbebor in 1984, the family said. The retired colonel passed on in February 2020, prompting former President Muhammadu Buhari to hail his “illustrious military career, during which he emerged a hero of the Nigerian Civil War.”
The Ogbebors and other families living in the compound, including some naturalised expatriates, have vowed to fight the revocation edict issued by Mr Wike, expressing their dismay as to the degree of callousness elicited by the minister. The November 22 deadline they were given to move out of all the houses in the compound before earthmovers rolled in expired three weeks ago.
Corporate filings shared with Peoples Gazette on Wednesday night showed Mr Wike has already allocated the land to Saravera Nigeria Ltd, a special purpose venture controlled by Kingsley Ogundu Chinda, a lawmaker from Rivers State, where Mr Wike was governor from 2015 until 2023.
Mr Chinda, 58, served as personal assistant to Mr Wike on legal matters while the minister during his days as chairman of Obio-Akpor Local Government Area in Rivers. The Gazette understands that Mr Chinda has remained a trusted ally of Mr Wike’s ever since, and Mr Wike used Mr Chinda to foment crisis for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party at the National Assembly and party caucus gatherings, according to party insiders with details of the relationship.
As the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr Wike has near-absolute powers to issue, rescind or modify lands in Abuja and environs. His decision to seize a lucrative piece of land and give it to his close associate has fueled criticism that he was cornering public assets for himself, especially as critics had long identified Mr Chinda as one of Mr Wike’s proxies for tucking away ill-gotten wealth.
Abuja land management has been a staple of elite interest since the country’s capital moved there in the 1990s, and almost every minister ever since has faced corruption allegations after leaving office. Anti-graft EFCC accused former minister Bala Muhammad of misappropriating lands to the tune of N1.5 trillion, and Nasir el-Rufai was similarly dogged by allegations of underhand dealings during his days at the nation’s capital. All the politicians denied corruption allegations and said their tenures saw a progressive expansion and implementation of the city’s masterplan.
it was unclear whether or not Mr Chinda paid for the land, or how much if he did. President Bola Tinubu has been accused of aiding corruption by giving Mr Wike unchecked powers to focus on land administration at the detriment of a moribund national economy, which has seen poverty mushroom for over 80 per cent of the population. The president denied corruption allegations and urged strict compliance with existing land regulations.
Mr Chinda’s role as a director at Saravera while also serving as a federal lawmaker appeared to contravene Nigeria’s code of conduct order for public officeholders, which carries criminal penalties upon conviction.
Mr Chinda sidestepped The Gazette’s attempts to obtain his comments for this story between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
A spokesman for Mr Wike said the minister did not do anything wrong in revoking the land for onward transfer to his ally.
“Mr Wike did not collect land from anybody,” Lere Olayinka said in a statement to The Gazette Wednesday night. “The family has been using the land for 40 years, and they were told to make some payments to regularise their occupancy of the land but they failed to do so.”
Mr Olayinka said Mr Chinda’s acquisition of the land did not violate long-standing mores on conflict-of-interest, but instead a manifestation of the rights to property ownership.
“He has rights to be allocated that land. Kingsley Chinda is a member of the House of Representatives of Nigeria. He’s a citizen of Nigeria. He is a resident of Abuja. He is entitled to own land in Abuja,” Mr Olayinka said.
“So because Wike is a minister now, everybody associated with him should be shut out of their rights and benefits as a Nigerian?” Mr Olayinka added.
People’s Gazette
