Abuja land grab: Senate vows to probe Obasanjo, Jonathan, El-Rufai, others

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THE Senate, yesterday, vowed to probe former
Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan as
well as ministers who served under them to correct
alleged violation of the master plan of the nation’s capital
city.
Addressing journalists, yesterday, Chairman, Senate
Committee on Federal Capital Territory, Senator Dino
Melaye (APC, Kogi West), who did not exempt any former
Minister of the FCT or President in the proposed probe,
said as a government of change, it was prepared to send
any one found guilty to Kuje Prison which he said was
not far from the Federal Capital City, FCC.
Melaye, while condemning what he described as the
bastardization of Abuja Masterplan, however, expressed
worry over why former FCT ministers allocated green
areas designed for flood drains, city buffers, recreations,
urban farming, reserved land and undevelopable areas to
themselves and their friends.
The probe may also be extended to former Presidents
because by the law establishing the FCT, the President is
the governor-general of FCT who appoints a minister to
administer the city on his behalf.
Melaye said: “With this administration of change, it is no
longer going to be business as usual. Permit me to
remind FCT administration again by stating that this
committee will not hesitate to ensure that all
administrative anomalies, misappropriation of funds or
misapplication of laws as the case may be, occasioned
by the past administrations of FCT, are fully addressed.
This is what justice demands in these circumstances; to
right the wrongs.
“Therefore, the committee is worried and frowns on
satanic and misleading advice and recommendation to
convert very important and beautiful natural endowments
or features which are very scanty like the world
acclaimed Maitama Hills, popularly known as Ministers’
Hills, which could serve as a tourist attraction to the
residents of FCT.
“I want to state here again that if the bourgeois of this
country need a special allocation, a new district can be
dedicated to them and not destroy the beauty of the city
centre, a national monument like the Maitama Hills."
Since the inception of the Federal Capital Territory from
when it was a ministry to when it became Federal Capital
Territory Administration, FCTA, 16 ministers, including
the present, Mohammed Bello, had so far been at the
helm of affairs of the city.
During the former President Obasanjo regime, the
ministers were Ibrahim Bunu, PDP, 1999-2001;
Mohammed Abba Gana, PDP, 2001-2003; Mallam Nasir
el- Rufai, PDP then, now APC, 2003-2007; Dr. Aliyu
Modibbo Umar, PDP, 2007- 2008; Senator Muhammadu
Adamu Aliero, PDP, then, now APC, 2008-2010 and
Senator Bala Mohammed, PDP, 2010-2015.
Before former President Obasanjo’s government, other
ministers were Mobolaji Aise- Adeogun, 1976- 1979; John
Jatau Kadiya, 1979-1982; Iro Dan Musa, 1982-1983;
Senator Haliru Dantoro, 1983-1984; General Mamman
Vatsa, 1984- 1985; Hamza Abdullahi, 1986-1989; Gado
Nasko, 1989-1993; General Jeremiah Useni, now a
serving Senator, 1993-1998 and General Mamman
Kontagora, 1998- 1999.

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