was headed by Usman Sabo Ago, a one-time director of planning and survey for the federal capital.
My friend and top Lagos lawyer, Asue Ighodalo, and a US-based urban planner, Dr. Ismail Iro, were
members, along with a few others. We terminated the endless studies and ended the contracts with the
consultants. The committee undertook a detailed study, and submitted its excellent final report in
April 2004.
We then proceeded to engage Julius Berger to undertake the turnkey computerisation assignment
whose scope covered Phase I of the FCC. This included the Central Area, Garki 1, II, Wuse I, II,
Maitama, and Asokoro Districts. The project entailed the acquisition of relevant data, satellite
pictures and aerial photographs, the supply of required computer software and other hardware, and
staff training. The project required the turnkey delivery of a state-of-the-art land information system,
geographic information system, and integrated land maps with comprehensive data on land title
holders in digital form and hard copies.
We constituted a 16-person counterpart team comprising staff of the land-related departments of the
MFCT to work with the consultants. We selected each member of the task force based on technical
competence, integrity and record of previous limited involvement in land racketeering in the FCT. As
the implementation of the project went under way, it became clear that much more was achievable
with the hardware and software already supplied and the resources available if additional data
capture activities were tagged onto the main project. For instance, we realised that unless plots in
Phase II of the FCC (Mabushi, Utako, Gudu, Katampe, Jabi, Gwarimpa I, II, Karmo, Wuye, Kukwaba
and Durumi) and other new contiguous districts like Katampe Extension, Guzape, Mpape and
Asokoro Extension were covered, the problem of double allocation of the same plot of land and
similar fraud could not be fully addressed.
Therefore, I persuaded President Obasanjo of the need for the ‘add-on projects’, which we funded
partly from the contingencies in the contract and our 2004 statutory budget. These entailed the mass
data entry of all land records in Phases I and II of the FCC; the field verification of status of all plots
in Phase I and parts of Phases II and III of the FCC; the digital photographs of all buildings on all
plots in Phases I and II; and the procurement of satellite imagery for Phases II, III and IV of the FCC.
Other major settlements outside the city like Zuba, Lugbe, Kubwa, Karu, Nyanya, Gwagwalada, Kuje
and Karshi were also to be similarly covered. The assignments were completed without any cost
over-runs. In the process, our 16 staff were fully trained and certified to expert level in GIS and LIS.
By July 2004, we were able to submit a comprehensive memorandum to the Cabinet containing the
following findings:
As at April 2004, the FCT had over 105,000 applications for land, for which only
21,470 had been granted rights of occupancy. We had over 85,000 applications un-
attended, some filed since 1980 – an 80% failure rate.
The manual record-keeping system and resultant corruption had led to multiple
allocations of the same plot of land to more than one applicant. Over 866 cases of
multiple allocation involving individuals, companies, embassies and even Federal
Government were documented by the task team. There were 2,149 cases of multiple
plot numbering and 119 cases of multiple file numbering.
There were rampant cases of forgeries of land records, theft of files and smuggling in
of forged files into the Land Registry. The FCT branch of the EFCC under Assistant
Commissioner of Police Amodu had to shut down a printing press in Kaduna, and
began prosecuting some members of the syndicate.
There were several other unauthorized bodies within the FCT involved in the
allocation of land contrary to the provisions of the Constitution, the Land Use Act and
the Federal Capital Territory Act, which stipulated that only the Minister of FCT and
no other person or authority could approve the allocation of land in the territory.
Vital facilities provided for in the master plan for respective districts and
neighbourhoods had been converted to other uses, mostly residential – seriously
distorting the Abuja master plan and putting pressure on designed facilities.
Encroachments and violations were found wherein buildings were erected on water
and sewer lines, road reservations and under high-tension electric lines. We
uncovered the more disturbing, wholesale of conversion of flood plains, railways
and transit way reservations by untitled squatters into buildings of sorts. About 200
buildings had to be demolished in the city to remove these encroachments.
Land-related revenue generation had been poor due to breakdown of record keeping,
which provided ample room for non-payment of charges due, fraud and diversion of
revenues. We found also that more than 70% of land title-holders were in arrears of
payments of ground rents and other land charges, without any reminders,
consequences or sanctions.
We were conscious of the fact that some of the 85,000 reportedly pending applications for land
included those filed by staff of MFCT land administration department, sometimes using passport
photos obtained from FCT Pilgrims' Board using all manner of fictitious names. Furthermore, due to
the age of some of the applications, we recognized that even some of the genuine applicants might
have passed away, changed addresses and other contact details. We therefore needed to take steps to
correct some of these anomalies as part of any clean-up process.
We drew the attention of the cabinet to the existence of nearly a dozen different agencies, departments
and authorities allocating land within the FCT. These existed and operated while the relevant
professionals in the land administration department were helpless, leading to the distortion of the
Abuja Master Plan, multiple land use violations and threats to public safety, health and order. These
unauthorized ‘land allocation organizations’ included the following:
the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) that alienated land within residential estates allocated to it;
Abuja Environmental Protection Board that ‘allocated’ parks and gardens for irregular use;
Development Control Department of FCDA which ‘allocated’ corner shops and open spaces;
Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development ,which alienated land within residential estates
allocated to it;
Department of Engineering of FCDA , which controlled and temporarily ‘allocated’ ‘life camps’ to
construction companies, electric sub-station plots, transit ways, and roads rights of way;
the six Area Councils had until 2001 control of land outside the city footprint, previously allocated
what was called “Rural Land” in FCT;
Department of Economic Development which ‘allocated’ Agricultural Land, and alienated plots
within any FCT Market;
Department of Public Buildings of FCDA which sometimes alienated land within various FCDA
residential estates;
the various task forces on resettlement extensively allocated land illegally in Dei-Dei, Zuba and
Kubwa),
Department of Maintenance, FCDA also engaged in land alloaction within some FCDA residential
estates; and
; The Chiefs, Village heads and other traditional rulers in FCT granting what they called "customary
title" to various illegal squatters and occupants of land.
The Cabinet accordingly approved that the next stage of the computerization of the cadastral and land
information system should proceed, such that the rest of the FCC and the FCT would be digitally
mapped and formal title, called Certificates of Occupancy, issued to all those who qualified. [64] On
completion, we established the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS) in the Minister’s
office, to be the sole custodian of all geo-spatial data in the FCT.
Taking advantage of the existence of multiple land allocation points and the confusion arising from it
were several land syndicates operating with impunity in the FCT. Two such syndicates stood out -
Engineer Amuchie Success, who operated in Asokoro, Wuse II, and Maitama, while Alhaji
Muhammadu Kamba, who specialized in Wuse I, Garki 1 and Kubwa plots. These syndicates
operated with the assistance and connivance of staff of the MFCT cartographic unit and FCDA
planning and survey department. Indeed, the syndicates even printed their C of Os, which were
identical to the genuine MFCT certificate, and were alleged to have the capability to forge the
signature of virtually any Minister or official of the FCT, past and present. With the assistance of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, we put these syndicates under pressure and on the run,
and Engineer Success was arrested and was being prosecuted by the EFCC as at when we left office.
In the course of investigations, the EFCC found that several tracts of land within Asokoro, Maitama
and Wuse II District of the FCC had been fraudulently ‘allocated’ by these syndicates to several high-
ranking Nigerians.
Some of the victims of Amuchie Success, according to an EFCC report dated November 30, 2003 and
addressed to President Obasanjo, were Senators Anyim Pius Anyim, Jonathan Zwingina, Evans
Enwerem, Maina Ma'aji Lawan, and Abubakar Mahdi. Others included my predecessor-in-office,
Mohammed Abba Gana, former governors Chukwuemeka Ezeife and Lucky Igbinedion of Anambra
and Edo States respectively, the late Stephen Shekari, then Kaduna State Deputy Governor, as well as
other prominent individuals. The syndicate leaders targeted senators, governors and important people
that had the connections and capacity to ‘launder’ their allocations by getting properly regularised
titles issued to them after they had completed their buildings with forged offer letters, titles, and
building plan approvals. An instance was the case of Senator Jonathan Zwingina. Mrs. Altine Jibrin,
then Assistant Director and Deeds Registrar, resisted all pressures including ministerial directives to
register (and therefore launder) Senator Zwingina's fake title in respect of land reserved for a park on
which he had built his mansion. The other alleged land racketeer, Muhammadu Kamba, mysteriously
disappeared, and was rumoured to have fled from Abuja in fear of the EFCC. On receipt of the
EFCC’s report, Obasanjo directed the MFCT to recover all illegally acquired plots and keep him
informed.
Following the finalization of the computerization of cadastral and land information system of Phases I
and II of the Federal Capital City, and the establishment of the AGIS, we redesigned the form and
substance of the FCT title document – the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), - and withdrew all
evidence of land titles, while preserving the titles themselves. We invited every title-holder to submit
documents for re-certification. To give legal effect to this decision, we gazetted FCT Land Use
Regulations 2004, pursuant to the Land Use Act, and embarked on a nine-month programme of title re-
certification, which started on July 5, 2004.
Many initially questioned the legality of our re-certification exercise, but none succeeded when they
challenged it in court. In fact, before arriving at this drastic but necessary decision, we ensured full
legal review and compliance. I was merely exercising the powers of the minister of FCT which the
president statutorily delegated to me under section 18 of the Federal Capital Territory Act and
sections 9(1), (2) and 46(2)(d) of the Land Use Act, not only to grant Right of Occupancy (R of O)
and C of O, but to make regulations with regards to, among others, the forms to be used for any
documentation.
Land Allocation Criteria
We also looked at land allocation criteria and proposed steps to reduce the level of discretion vested
in the FCT minister in granting titles to land. In the Federal Capital Territory, the basic principles
guiding allocation of land were originally designed to ensure the achievement of the following
objectives:
Provision of adequate infrastructure, services and facilities;
Development of a functional, beautiful city at all times, and viable satellite towns
around the city;
Promotion of national integration in residence and business ventures;
Integration of the original inhabitants into the mainstream of economic and social life
of the Territory; and
Observance of relevant provisions of the Land Use Act, and full compliance with
those of the Federal Capital Territory Act.
These principles enjoyed different interpretations in the previous 28 years by successive
administrations of the FCT. In the Second Republic, the Shagari administration's two ministers that
first began the allocation of land in the FCT adopted the following criteria:-
Date of Application (i.e. first come, first allocated),
Ability and capacity to develop within 2 years of allocation,
State quota with 40% of allocation based on population.
Equality of states to ensure national unity, with 50% of available plots for
allocation.
Minister’s Discretion: 10% of plots available for allocation at the minister’s
discretion to take care of presidential priorities and other political considerations
other than (I) – (iv) above.
Even though the criteria were fair and equitable, empirical evidence indicated that political
considerations trumped the stated criteria. The criteria also failed to classify for instance, what
identity to assign to firms and companies in which the state of origin of the owners and registered
office of the business may be different. Other applicants like embassies, international organizations
and foreign persons like the United Nations became similarly difficult to classify.
Indeed, in the previous 20 years until I took charge of the FCT Administration, ministerial
miscretion was virtually 100%, instead of the 10% in the approved guidelines, with the result that
speculators, rather than capable developers, got land allocations within the FCT. Evidence available
of registrations of power of attorney and deeds of assignment indicates that nearly 40% of all land
allocated in the FCT in the previous two decades had changed hands at least once before
development.
After a careful review of the 28 years of experience and considering the backlog of 85,000
unattended applications, we proposed the criteria for the fair, just and equitable allocation of land
within the Federal Capital Territory - assuming that infrastructure provision for a particular district
was financed with public funds - which were approved by the Federal Executive Council:
&
nbsp; Equality of states – 60% of plots
Population of states - 10% of plots
Public Servants resident in Abuja – 10% of plots and
Ministerial Discretion – 20% of plots
I have gone into some detail in explaining the logic behind our land reforms for two reasons. First,
many states have attempted to implement what we did, with limited success as far as I know, and I
hope that this will help point them in the right direction. In addition, the attempt by the Yar'Adua
administration not only to reverse what we did, but to imply that we were driven by anything other
than the best interest of Abuja and Nigeria, needs to be debunked. I had cause to write President
Umaru Yar'Adua on November 30, 2007 on these and other matters, long before the Sodangi Senate
Committee was procured to go on the revenge mission called 'investigative public hearings'. I will
refer to parts of that letter because its contents would complement the story of the land reforms.
I had assumed that President Yar'Adua meant well but was simply being misled, and with all sense of
responsibility, I wanted to prevent the creation of more serious problems for his administration in
attempts to demonize, smear and discredit a single individual - that is me. I love Abuja and gave
nearly four years of my life to its restoration, orderliness and development.
Land Administration in 2003
When President Obasanjo appointed me as FCT minister he gave me the mandate to clean up amongst
other things, the FCT land administration system which he adjudged to be a major source of
corruption and rent-seeking within the Federal Government. In the FCT, we found that the President
Obasanjo’s judgment was largely correct. For instance, we discovered that:
Many Nigerians, particularly the political and military elite had been allocated plots of
land, which had remained undeveloped for years. These plots of land were in every way
The Accidental Public Servant Page 38
