For homeowners in the contentious sprawling Rivers Park Estate in Abuja, there are good tidings that they would not lose their homes as the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, has assured property owners that the FCT Administration has no plans to seize their homes, despite recent demolitions that have sparked anxiety among the residents.
Speaking after a tour of parts of the estate on Saturday, where illegal structures were recently pulled down by Development Control officials of the administration, Wike said the goal was not to dispossess Nigerians of their property but to regularise ownership and ensure compliance with the law.
“I got a petition from SIMS senior advocate, lawyer to a company called Jonah AD, which I came to know is a Ghanaian company, and that company had a lease agreement with the FCT Administration, more than 20 years ago. Then from what we know, that company now had a power of attorney to a third party called Paulo Homes. Paulo Homes has no business with the FCT. Let it be on record. Only the Ghanaian company has business with us,” the minister explained.
According to him, the lease agreement with Jonah AD had since expired, while the transfer of interest to Paulo Homes was itself a breach of the terms of the lease.
He said this had placed unsuspecting Nigerians who bought land or built houses in the estate in a difficult situation.
“What we agreed to do in order not to make a lot of Nigerians who may have inadvertently obtained and built houses, we decided that we will give them back C of O, to say that they were directly allocated land by the FCT Administration. So, all these cries that they (FCTA) want to take their property is neither here nor there. That is not the intention of the FCTA,” Wike said.
The minister added that while homeowners would be protected, ongoing construction in the estate under Paulo Homes would not be tolerated.
“And we now said that since the lease has expired, no more development. What Paulo Homes did was to, overnight, start construction in order to tie the hands of the administration, which, of course you know we will not succumb to such. So, we sent the Department of Development Control to come here and demolish every construction going on. And that we will continue to do,” he declared.
Wike also cautioned prospective property buyers against rushing into transactions without proper verification, warning that anyone building in the estate without clearance from the FCTA was acting “at his or her own risk.”
“I appeal to those who do not understand or could not have known, not to be fooled. Anybody who is doing anything here now is at his or her own risk. It will go down. No amount of blackmail will stop us,” he said.
“You know people have always used government to make money. We are not stopping anybody from making money. We are saying do things the way it should be done.”
The minister further disclosed that all Certificates of Occupancy issued through Paulo Homes had been voided. He said fresh titles would be issued directly to verified homeowners to secure their property rights.
“All those who are here should be rest assured that nobody is going to collect their property, but we are going to issue them new C of O.
“All those C of O given to them through Paulo Homes, we have already voided them. So, we will reissue them with new C of O. We are going to invite residents who own property here next week, so that we tell them what we intend to do. So, there is no cause for alarm,” Wike assured.
