Former President Muhammadu Buhari has addressed the recent revocation of a plot of land belonging to the Muhammadu Buhari Trust Foundation in Abuja.
In a statement issued on Thursday by his media aide, Garba Shehu, Buhari clarified that he was not the owner of the plot allocated to the Foundation, which is named after him.
The revocation order was issued by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, who also revoked 762 other plots belonging to prominent Nigerians and corporate organizations in the Maitama District of Abuja.
Additionally, Wike granted 614 other plot owners two weeks to settle outstanding payments for the Right of Occupancy (R-of-O) on their plots, or risk losing them.
These decisions were outlined in two separate public notices from the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).
One of the notices indicated that the Muhammadu Buhari Trust Foundation had an outstanding payment of N1.23 billion for plot number 4873.
However, Shehu explained that the Foundation was established by a group of well-meaning individuals who acted lawfully in acquiring the land but encountered bureaucratic challenges within the land department of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA).
“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 organisations.
“It may have been that this was not erroneous, but a deliberate mistake, making the revocation of land as no surprise to anyone,” he said.
Mr Shehu also said Mr Buhari, like any other person, has a plot in Abuja.
“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,” the statement said.
Read the full statement:
NOTHING LIKE LOSS OF BUHARI LAND IN ABUJA.
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 (Buhari) 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 organisations.
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
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