The House of Representatives on Thursday constituted an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate all cases of land allocated by the FCT Administration from 2010 to 2013.
The eight-member committee, which had Rep. Bimbo Daramola (ACN-Ekiti) as its Chairman, was mandated to ascertain records of successes and or abuses which border on racketeering.
The committee is also expected to investigate the Mass Housing and Land Swap Schemes with a view to identifying beneficiaries and their financial, managerial and technical competence.
The committee is expected to report back to the house within four weeks.
The resolution followed a motion by Rep. Ibrahim El-Sudi (PDP-Taraba), which was unanimously adopted without debate when put to vote by the Speaker, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal.
The motion was entitled: “The Need to investigate improper allocation and cases of land racketeering in the mass housing scheme, land swap scheme and allocation of commercial and residential plots by the FCT from 2010 to date.’’
El-Sudi said that the Minister of FCT, Sen. Bala Mohammed, in the discharge of his duties approved various initiatives like the Mass Housing and Land Swap Schemes to corporate and private individuals.
According to him, several hectares of land have been allocated to corporate entities under the schemes.
He said that the allocations in the past four years had generated widespread concerns from informed Nigerians.
The lawmaker also said that the identities of the beneficiaries were shrouded in secrecy.
“The secrecy emphasises the fact that beneficiaries do not have requisite experience of property development elsewhere and may not have the financial power to realise the aims of the allocation,’’ El- Sudi said.
He cited the instance of an organisation like the Malaysian Gardens that had leveraged on similar schemes to acquire huge expanse of land in the FCT.
According to him, some of the said corporate entities, who are beneficiaries of the huge allocation, are not incorporated by the Corporate Affairs Commission.
He also expressed concerns that corporate entities had the same directors with different addresses of promoters which, according to him, is suggestive of land racketeering.
He, therefore, urged the house to look into the matter.
