INVESTIGATION: How FCTA, AGIS fraudulently re-allocated documented lands to influential Nigerians

Investigations have shown how the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, under the leadership of the immediate past Minister of the FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, reallocated landed properties duly paid for and issued to some Nigerians to influential personalities in the society who paid less than 10 per cent of the actual cost which the Administration charged the rightful owners for them to secure the documentation of such lands.

A case in point is the plight of Zahna Commercial Enterprises which by virtue of the Right of Occupancy signed by the then FCT Minister and dated October 27, 2010 was issued Certificate of Occupancy for Plot N0. 21 Industrial Area 1 and Ext (c16) Old Cadastral Zone in Asokoro, Abuja issued to it on January 2, 2014. It however turned out that the FCTA through one of its agencies – the Abuja Geographical Information System, AGIS, reissued the same property to Bulkon Nigeria Limited, a company found to belong to a former Minister of the FCT, Mamman Kotangora.

Checks by DAILY POST reveal that while Zahna Commercial Enterprises parted with the sum of N12,205,894.08 as total payment for the documentation of the land to AGIS, what was charged Bulkon Nigeria Limited for the same documentation of the 1.9 hectares land was N2million. Beyond this, it was found that the latter’s payment was made about three months after the C-of-O duly signed by Bala Mohammed was issued to Bulkon Nigeria Limited in contravention of the convention of payments being made before the certificate of occupancy can be issued.

To be specific, the receipt of Bulkon’s payment (attached) obtained by DAILY POST showed that the company paid the paltry N2million on the 26th of May 2015 whereas it got issued a C of O earlier in February 24, 2015. Meanwhile, Zahna Commercial Enterprises had at November 23, 2011 paid N9,873,750.00 (Receipt NO: 000125149) to AGIS for R-of-O of the said land and parted with another N1,749,108.60 (Receipt NO: 00016789) on December 9, 2013 as Ground Rent. The total amount was brought to N12,205,894.08 following Zahna’s payment (Receipt NO: 0002136) of N102,000.00 still to AGIS on November 14, 2014 for Power of Attorney.

All these payments resulted in Zahna Commercial Enterprises being issued a Certificate of Occupancy (with File NO: MISC 107636) also signed by Bala Mohammed on January 2, 2014 as against that of Bulkon Nigeria Limited (with File NO: MISC 77661) that was dated February 24, 2015. This was done without any revocation of the right earlier granted to Zahna just as the organization was not served any notice to the effect.

Speaking with DAILY POST, Counsel to Zahna Commercial Enterprises, Bola Aidi Esq revealed that his chambers had written on behalf of its clients to the Permanent Secretary about the issue and had on the 31st of August written to President Muhammadu Buhari where it alleged that the C-of-O purportedly issued by the former Minister of FCT who left office on May 29 2015 was fraudulently “backdated to read February 24, 2015”.

The Chambers raised five points in its petition to the President, and exclusively obtained by DAILY POST which reads in part:

That we are constrained to conclude that the said certificate issued to Bulkon is a product of fraud; (same not having been issued by Senator Bala Mohammed or having been issued by him after he left office in May, 2009) for the following reasons:

a) That as the time the Certificate was allegedly signed on 24th February, 2015, no single payment was made to the government in respect of the issuance of the Certificate and no single ground rent was paid on same contrary to the norm in AGIS and in contrast to the over twelve million (N12,000,000) Naira paid by our client in 2012 and 2013 before the signing of the C. of. O belong (sic) to our client (copies attached). We are therefore convinced that Senator Bala Mohammed would not have signed a C. of. O without the payment of the requisite fees. If there was no fraud or corruption.

b) That it was only on May 26th, 2015 that Bulkon Nigeria Ltd (for whom the Minister allegedly signed a C. of. O on 24thFebruary, 2015) hurriedly made a payment of the sum of two million (N2,ooo,000) Naira in respect of the C. of. O allegedly issued since 24th February, 2015 over three clear months after purported issuance of the C. of. O (copy attached).

c) That the identification number of the C. of. O allegedly issued to Bulkon is not in conformity with the land specification and therefore a forgery as the time digit miscellaneous number of the C. of. O is not for commercial purpose but private. All commercial land digits carry six numbers.

Furthermore, we wish to bring to your attention that some unscrupulous elements within AGIS in other to create the semblance of a valid revocation of our client’s title have gone ahead to forge various internal memos creating the impression that there was double allocation and that our client’s title was vividly revoked even when (a) the copy of the file report showed there was no problem with the allocation. (b) no revocation letter was served on us. (c) the same AGIS duly served our client with demand for ground rent payment on 13th November, 2014 in the sum of N583,036.20k which sum our client duly paid on 17th November, 2014. (copies attached).

d) Our client’s power of Attorney (allegedly attached) was registered by the same deed registry on 28th October, 2014 without any issue of double allocation.

(e) A copy of the search report conducted again by our client on 14th November, 2014 and which was dispatched to us on 19th November, 2014 equally showed there was no encumbrance whatsoever.

DAILY POST sought to get the reactions of the Head of information and Customer Service in AGIS, Cosmos Uzodinma, who revealed that he would have loved to have our correspondent speak with the Director of Lands in the department (who was not on seat).

While confirming the authenticity of the documents which DAILY POST is in possession of, he explained that there was a double allocation of the contentious property which necessitated it being restored to Bulkon after a court judgment from an Abuja High Court. What Mr. Uzodinma said in the conversation contradicted greatly with documents available to this newspaper.

According to him, “The original allocation was made in May 1953 to one Sule Mohammed; The C of O was also given in December 1984. The ownership was transferred to Bulkon by the administrators of Sule Mohammed in 2003 as a donation while Power of Attorney was got in April 2003.

“There was a litigation and the judgment was delivered by an Abuja High Court in March 8 2001 and Bulkon was declared the bonafide owner. A memo was raised to the honorable minister to restore the land to Bulkon. But I can notice a double allocation to Zahna but that double allocation was like stepped down and restored to Zahna according to the first come first served rule. There was really double allocation to Zahna and that was why the land has to be restored back to Bulkon,” he stated.

Further questions on why the dates quoted by Mr. Uzodinma do not tally with the dates of the two C of O issued by AGIS could not be answered accurately.