Land allocated to Ukachukwu did not have approval of any minister – Wike

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has revealed what transpired between him and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the SNECOU Group Limited, Nicholas Ukachukwu, who decried the demolition of his investment on 214 hectares of land in the Asokoro district of FCT.

Ukachukwu had accused Wike of ordering the demolition without any court order despite pending valid two court orders from separate courts stopping him and the FCT administration from tampering with the property.

However, while speaking in a recent interview, the Anambra-born businessman called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and save the multi-million-naira invested in the property.

Ukachukwu had claimed that the property was demolished because it was owned by an Igbo man, and not because the company violated any law.

Claiming that the demolition was done in bad faith, Ukachukwu said: “Wike called for a meeting over the land, we went with our documents after seeing what we had with our lawyer and another company, Sunrise which they gave part of that land. Wike said that there is nothing on this that the court should take effect.”

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Reacting to the allegation in a press briefing, Wike said the land allocated to Ukachukwu did not have the approval of any minister as his predecessor.

The FCT minister said the land-grabbing in Abuja is becoming rampant because some officials in the land department of his ministry have compromised.

Wike said, “I have been doing this before. I will continue to do it. And nothing will happen. Criminals are criminals. They may come in different ways.

“I have never seen people like land-grabbing people in this place. I came in, (I met) so many petitions. One company came with different petitions, with different owners of properties. I summoned all of them. They came with their lawyers and senior advocates.

“And I said,” Look, what is this? Companies presented their cases. Company A presented their case, Company B presented their own, Company C, Company D, and Company E. I said okay, I’m going to seek advice from external solicitors. I’m not going to take advice from insiders … because the biggest (fraud) is that the Land Department has been compromised. I sought the views of senior lawyers and told them, we need to do things differently.

“This land, by this so-called ethnic jingoist, was allocated when there was no minister. The minister left on May 29, 2023. By June the land was allocated by the director of lands.

“We all met and agreed that nobody should do anything on the land until we are able to make a final decision. You know what happened? These guys thought they were too smart and they started selling the land.”