Expose: Shocking details of how FCDA/FCTA officials, Bwari Area Council officials engage in biggest land racketeering in connivance with outsider cartels
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barr. Nyesom Wike
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LAND OFFICE/LANDS ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT FORGED A TRIPATITE AND UNHOLY ALLIANCE WITH THE NOTORIOUS ISHAQ SALIHU LED LAND-GRABBING AND LAND RACKETEERS CRIMINAL GANG/CARTEL AND ARE LOOTING AND SIPHONING AND DIVERTING TENS AND HUNDRED OF BILLIONS OF NAIRA FROM BOTH THE REVENUE FLOWS ON LANDS ADMINISTRATION FEES, PROCEEDS ON A LARGE SCALE ILLEGAL LAND LAYOUTS AND ILLICIT PLOTS ALLOCATIONS/SALES AND THE UNLAWFUL & ILLEGAL BUILDING PLANS APPROVAL FEES/CHARGES
Some TOP officials of the URBAN & REGIONAL PLANING DEPARTMENT and the Development Control Department of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCDA/FCTA working in cahoots with a very notorious and criminal Land racketeering cartel are at all times, raking in Tens & Hundreds of billions of naira accrued from land processing revenue flows and sales of illegal, unapproved plots of land on a massive scale and the grant of backdated, unlawful and illegal building plan approvals, the proceeds from which are diverted and siphoned into the private/personal pockets of this powerful criminal land racketeering syndicate. This has been the modus-operandi of this criminal syndicate that has been in operation with absolute impunity, brazen disregards to due processes of the law and in utter contempt of the extant rules and regulations for about 2 decades now, at least since 2005/2007 according to the information and documentary evidences made available to us.
Investigation by CAPITAL POST, penultimate week, revealed that the land racketeers some of who are outsiders and or former sacked or retired staff of the FCTA, are working with some senior officials of the Urban and Regional Planning department and officials of
the Department of Development Control & the Bwari Zonal Land office in perpetrating these criminal activities of backdating and granting building development approvals for these unapproved, illegal and fake Rural/Area councils Plots of lands despite the ban and prohibition on all activities by Ministerial directives which is still in force.
We were able to reach and asked the Director, Development Control, Muhktar Galadima, to comment on these allegations and answer our questions, but he declined to speak to us over. Not even the questionnaire in form of text message sent to him was replied.
We are yet to receive his comments as we go to the press. One fact is certain; And that is that the development control department is directly and actively at the centre of all the illegalities, fraud and corruption that bedevils land administration matters in the FCT and the Director, knowingly or not, is at best aiding and abetting this criminal enterprise or is himself an insider and arrow head, who allows the grants and backdated approval for building plans for rural/area councils lands in total disregard of the Order banning the grant of building approvals for Rural Lands within the FCT.
Another legitimate question is what happens to the proceeds of the mandatory fees charged by the department as processing fees for building approvals? Are these fees being collected and if so into which of the departments revenue accounts are there being credited? Or are there also siphoned and diverted into private hands? Whatever the answers are, the records, if any, of the proceeds into the revenue accounts will serve to further establish that the approvals given are on and for rural lands contrary to the regulations.
ENDEMIC CORRUPTION AND WANTON ACTS OF IMPUNITY WITHIN THE DEVELOPMENT
CONTROL DEPARTMENT
Our investigations and documentary evidences we have obtained clearly shows that bribery and corruption and various acts of impunity are endemic in the operations and activities of the Development control department. Take the case of one; Mr Christopher Emefele,
who was seeking for building plan approval for 45 units of plots that he purchased. Mr Christopher Emefele, as he documented himself, had to pay various sums of monies in bribery to the officials of the development control department as follows.
1. Mr Garba (Deputy Director Development Control) – 27/4/2021 – $20,900 USD
3. Hajiya ( A staff & Deputy Director, Development Control Department) – 28/4/2021 –
N10,000,000 (Naira)
4. Unidentified Development Control Officer – 28/4/2021 – N5,000,000 (Naira)
5. Unidentified Development Control Officer – 26/5/2021 – N2,000,000 (Naira)
6. Mr Okpanam ( Director at Development Control Department) – 26/8/2021 – N15,000,000
(Naira)
7. Mr Okpanam ( Director at Development Control Department) – 4/3/2022 – N12,000,000
(Naira)
8. Deputy Director Development Control ( Given through Dr Agbata) – 16/3/2022 –
N1,000,000 (Naira)
9. Mr Garba (Deputy Director Development Control) – 23/3/2022 – N7,500,000 (Naira)
Another documented instance of the corrupt practices associated with the Development control department was a sworn court affidavit obtained by us where the complaints were one DownTown City Deals Ltd & 5 others in which the complainants aver and depose to a
statement of claims among which the complainants claimed to have jointly paid the sum of N180,000,000.00 as PR to various officials of the Development control department to facilitate grants of building plans approvals from the department.
Then there is the case of one Dr. Agbata who depose to an affidavit where he claimed to have paid the sum of N40 million naira as PR to the Development Control department through the account of the Secretary to the Director Legal Services of the Development control department. The money was to be utilised and shared around to key officials of the department by the Director, Legal services. The account details are as follows:-
A/c. No. 1392103784
Access Bank plc
Abdulganiyu Taoreed Balogun jnr.
As our investigation has shown, the director development control was fully aware of all the 3 cases elaborated above but has not taken any action to date.
THE NATURE, STRUCTURE, MODUS-OPERANDI & OPERATIONAL MODALITIES ,
COMPOSITION, FUNCTION AND ACTIVITIES OF THE TOP MOST HIGHEST RANKING
MASTERMINDS IN-CHARGE OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS AND LARGEST, ORGANISED
CRIMINAL LAND-GRABBING, LAND-RACKETEERING AND LAND-BASED GOVERNMENT
REVENUE DIVERSION/SIPHONING CABAL/SYNDICATE CURRENTLY OPERATING IN THE
FCT
THE MODUS OPERANDI AND ACTIVITIES: To fully grasp and understand how this nefarious and criminal land racketeering cartel works, it is necessary to understand its nature, who runs it, how it operates etc. We try here below to provide the reading public with an insight into the heart of this criminal network and the nature of its activities.
1]. Diversion and siphoning into private pockets of all Lands and Lands related official government revenue streams receipts, credit vouchers and all cash-flows arising from any and every lands transaction activities ranging from lands forms/files opening processing fees to every other aspect of lands administration services provision that attracts or involved an official or mandatory service fee payments. This scam operates and is coordinated at multiple levels of the FCT Administration system, and, it alone,
provides vast and unprecedented criminal source of cash flows in the TENS AND HUNDREDS of BILLIONS OF NAIRA to this criminal racketeering outfit fraudulently diverted and siphoned from the government coffers.
The first and primary originating level of this activity begins with the Local Area Councils so called lands administration department [Please Note: Focus here is SPECIFIC to the BWARI {AREA COUNCIL & AMAC to some extent].
In the case of Bwari. a clerk- a clerical staff of the area council who is one of the linchpins of this criminal cabal is, for example, solely responsible for the printing of all lands revenue receipts[with no due process nor accountability], prints them at any commercial printers of his choice and stacks them at his personal home. He operates from his home, charges whatever fees he deems fit, collects all payments in cash and, has his wife help him fill in the relevant forms and issues receipts. This has been the practice and status quo since 2007 – date.
Meet Mr. Umar Galadima – the Clerical Staff of the Bwari Area Council Lands Revenue Collection, Regularization/Registration and Receipts Issuance and Record Keeping officer: CAPITAL POST’s investigation has established and identify Umar Galadima who is solely responsible for the collection of all land administration revenues. He works from his home, issues revenue collection receipts which he printed himself and all payments are strictly in cash. An ordinary and low level clerk in the Bwari Land administration department. This young man has the virtual and sole monopoly over all the lands revenue accruing to the area council which he diverts and siphon into his private pockets. He has acquired so much loot that he is now a stupendously wealthy -multi billionaire and owns half of the properties within Bwari township, and even contested for the Senate during the last election which he lost.
He is the 2nd or 3rd most powerful person within the hierarchy of this criminal land racketeering cartel after Ishaq Salihu, a retired former Bwari land office Zonal Manager and the commander- in – chief of the criminal cartel responsible for the production and signing and backdating all illegal and fake layouts, and in charge of the land -grabbing operations of the cartel.
Umar Galadima has so much power and control to the extent that even the elected Executive Chairman and Councilors are totally captive and subordinated to him for they have no option but to rely on his patronage and the occasional handouts and benefits the cartel deigns to give them to sustain themselves and afford to oil their political machine that sustains them in public office. This is the objective reality of the levels of degeneracy, lawlessness and absolute impunity that the society and the entire country has descended to.
2. The second level of this graft and acts of criminality with absolute impunity occurs at the Department of Development Control of the FCT Administration. Here, the process is much more straight forward. Since 2004 when the then FCT Minister, El Rufai banned and
prohibited the grant of building development approvals for Rural/Council lands pending re-certification, and with subsequent administrations doubling down on the measures, factors within the department whom are direct members of this cartel and other
associated collaborators in the department have perfected and are perpetrating the art of back-dating and approving rural lands building and developments plans. But even more sinister, worrying and dangerous is the very real possibility that the statutory rural lands development and building plans processing and approval fees belonging to the FCT Administration Revenue Stream are diverted and siphoned into the private pockets of these characters and fellow members of the cartel. All our attempts to solicit for the confirmation or denial of this worrying prospect proves abortive as the man simply wont
answer our questions.
3. The second area of activity of this cartel, is by far the most pivotal and fundamental foundation upon which every thing else rest upon. These consist of three principal elements. These includes;- FAKE AND ILLEGAL LAYOUTS DESIGNS: These includes the planning, designing and productions of settlements, townships, neighbors, estates, markets, commercial centers, etc, on and over vast tract of lands measuring in the tens and hundreds of thousands of hectares all over the FCT, but particularly within the Bwari Area Council areas- without any authority whatsoever and absolutely without any ministerial approval whatsoever.
This has been the tradition since at least 2007 probably going back to 2005. As a result, vast plots of lands are thus unlawfully and criminally produced, backdated and sold to millions of gullible land hungry Nigerians who ultimately and invariably end up or will end up being victims and dupes of this criminal syndicate. In monetary terms, one can hardly imagine the kind of inflows that goes to the treasury of these criminals. Billions x Billions over. The mind boggles at the implications.
All specifics of these illegal and fake layouts will be detail below in this expose.
3]. LAND-GRAB, FORCED CONFISCATION, OVERLAYING OF FALSE LAYOUT OF EXISTING LEGITIMATE ONES, ILLEGAL AND CRIMINAL SUB-DIVISIONS, et al.:
This involves the rape of pre-existing legitimate layouts, where existing plots are carved out into multiple pieces and the extra plots are expropriated and sold by the cartel. It also includes the complete hijacking of legitimate layouts which are then overlaid with an illegal layouts that changes and alter the original plots numbers, sizes and other identifying marks. These are also expropriated by the cartel and sold to the public. The scope, levels and scale of the acts of criminalities, impunity and sheer gangsterism being committed here is beyond belief, with poor, innocent Nigerians left to bear the brunt
totally at the mercy of these criminal elements.
Mr. Ishaq Salihu – the last Bwari Zonal Land Office Manager to legitimately sign Rural R of Os before FCT Minister Nasir El’rufai banned the practice in 2004 and kicked out Ishaq Salihu out of the FCTA system- is at the center of the Spiders web of the entire criminal cartel and is solely responsible, along his close cronies operating both from the outside and within the system for all the land-grab, fake & illegal layouts. And, Ishaq Salihu alone is responsible for commissioning, producing and signing of all the illegal layouts and R of Os that are then dump into the Abuja open Land market.
Much more fundamental and injurious to the system is the fact that to date, Ishaq Salihu has refused to release all the data and records of his activities as Zonal Land Manager & those of his predecessors to AGIS and the other appropriate and responsible arms of the FCTA. Only Ishaq Salihu himself, Umar Galadima and the compromised departments of the FCTA involved in these criminalities have access to this data.
The 9 companies identified & listed below are the major vehicles and fronts used by the core most senior leadership of the cartel to disguise their activities and launder the illicit proceeds [financial and material] of their criminal enterprise. These 9 names will lead you to the money and true identities of the ranking members of the cartel.
URBAN & REGIONAL PLANNING DEPARTMENT:
With the honorable and principled exception of the new and recently appointed Director who refuse to condone any and all acts of gross violation of the rules, acts of gross impunity and any form of insubordination and criminalities [which has forced the rotten
elements to go to ground] with a few honorable exceptions, Virtually all the Senior Management Level Staff and other mid-level staff including each Zonal Manager appointed to Head the Bwari Zonal Lands Office, are the most active and committed insiders that have consistently work in close tandem and at the behest of the External Criminal Master Minds of the FCT Lands Rackets Outfit and or Cartels.
Every single Illegal Layout Design by the Cartel goes Straight to the URP Data Base, Duly Back-Dated & Dubbed “Updated and or Restructured, Reconfigured – whatever the pretense”;
And Yet, Not a SINGLE COPY OF THESE PURPOTEDLY DRAWN AND ALLOCATED RURAL LAND LAYOUTS – OF SEVERAL THOUSANDS – OF LAND AREAS AND DISTRICTS SO – CALLED “UPDATES” BACK DATED FROM 1998/98 – to 2003 HAVE EVER BEEN CAPTURED BY THE AGIS SYSTEMS SATTELITE CAPTURED GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM TO – DATE [2024]; Bearing in Mind That AGIS Came on Stream in the year 2004 and by 2005 was Fully Functional & have captured all the legitimate Urban Statutory and Rural/Regional Layouts of the entire FCT. Thus, its certain that not more than 10% – 20% of uncaptured Rural Lands Allocations & Layout Designs are Authentic.
The full and complete data that out Investigations revealed are at our disposal and readily available for the Authorities Investigation and the Courts of Law. All material and documentary proof and evidences of all items referenced to in this presentation, have been made available to us for further investigations.
