Former presidential aide Garba Shehu has debunked reports suggesting that a piece of land belonging to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja was among those recently revoked by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike.
Reports had circulated claiming that top politicians, including Buhari, and some organizations lost land allocations in the Federal Capital Territory after failing to pay for their Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-O).
According to these reports, 762 plots of land were revoked, and 614 additional plot owners were issued a two-week ultimatum to settle outstanding payments or risk losing their Rights of Occupancy (R-of-O).
Responding to these claims, Shehu issued a statement titled “NOTHING LIKE LOSS OF BUHARI LAND IN ABUJA,” clarifying that the former president does not own the piece of land in question.
He explained that the plot is linked to the “Muhammadu Buhari Foundation,” an organization established by individuals close to Buhari, which operated legally but faced challenges with the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA).
Read full statement below:
As with anything Buhari-and there is no surprise in this at all- there is a lot of buzz in the media on the reported seizure of a piece of land by the authorities of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, FCTA allegedly belonging to the former president Muhammadu Buhari.
President president is personally not the owner of the said plot of the land which is allocated in the name a “Muhammadu Buhari Foundation.”
The Foundation was itself floated by some utilitarian individuals around him who, it must said, went about it in a lawful manner with the support of a number of well-meaning persons.
But they ran into a roadblock in the land department of the FCDA which handed them an outrageous bill for the issuance of the certificate of occupancy, very high in cost that did not at all compare with the bills given to similar organizations.
It may have been that this was not erroneous, but a deliberate mistake, making the revocation of land as no surprise to anyone.
As a person, the former president has a plot of land to his name in Abuja.
When he and his cabinet members were invited to fill the forms and obtain land during his tenure in office, he returned the form without filling it, saying that he already had a plot of land in the FCT, that those who did not have should be be given. He, therefore, turned down the offer.
So please let all those jumping up and down in the digital space talking about the rightfulness or the lack of it on the reported seizure of Buhari’s land in Abuja get their facts right, and stop dragging down the name of the former president.
Garba Shehu.
19-12-24.
