Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike has shaken off the allegation by a businessman Linus Ukachukwu that the minister unilaterally demolished his property on the ground that an Igbo man is not supposed to have that much land allocated to him in the FCT.
The demolished property, a 215 hectares of land, is located close to Asokoro, a high brow area in Abuja.
The demolition was carried out by the FCT Development Authority with supervision from police and civil defence operatives.
Mr Ukachukwu had said the demolition was done in bad faith without any order of revocation. He also accused Wike of querying why all the land would be given to an Igbo man.
He said: “Wike called for a meeting over land. We went with our documents. After seeing what we have with our lawyer and the other people, Sunrise, which they gave part of the land to, Wike said there is nothing on this. That the court should take effect.
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“But after going round the land his usual way of behaviour, he started shouting ‘How they will take all this land and give it to an Igbo man?’”
Responding to the statement, Wike alleged in a chat with select journalists on Tuesday that Ukachukwu was involved in land grabbing, adding that the land was confiscated because it was not legally allocated to him.
“I’ve never seen land grabbing as much as I’ve seen in this FCT,” said Wike.
“Criminals are criminals…these guys think we are PDP Anambra State. That’s how they killed PDP Anambra State. They can produce court orders overnight. Nobody served me any court order. As long as I’m minister of FCT it will no longer be business as usual.”