Estate Demolition: FCT Minister Wike replies Ukachukwu, ‘Criminals are criminals’

Abuja, NIGIERIA — The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike, has given his account of what happened between him and the Chief Executive Officer of the SNECOU Group Limited, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, over the demolition of the latter’s property in Asokoro district of Abuja.

The property sitting on 214 hectares of land was demolished on Wednesday in the presence of heavily armed security operatives including soldiers, policemen and personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

“I have been doing this before. I will continue to do it. And nothing will happen,” he bragged, adding, “Criminals are criminals,” Wike fires.

Wike said that the land in question was allocated when there was no minister, insisting that he didn’t see any court order restraining the ministry from entering the property.
He described Ukachukwu as an “ethnic jingoist”.

On Monday, April 1, 2024, Ukachukwu had decried the demolition of his investment on 214 hectares of land in the Asokoro district of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

He had accused Wike of ordering the demolition.

Lamenting the demolition, Ukachukwu said it was carried out without any court order, despite pending valid two court orders from separate courts restraining the minister and the FCT administration from tampering with the property.

Speaking in an interview with the channel, the Anambra-born businessman called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and save the multi-million-naira invested in the property.

He claimed that the property was demolished because it was owned by Igbo man, and not because the company violated any law, as all legal titles had been sorted and obtained before commencing development of the property.

He accused Wike of shouting: “How will they take all this land and give it to an Igbo man,” before his property was later demolished.

But reacting to the demolition Wike claimed that the land allocated to Ukachukwu did not have the approval of any minister as claimed.

The former Rivers State Governor spoke while featuring on a live TV interview on Tuesday with broadcast stations, which was monitored by SaharaReporters.

Wike accused workers in the ministry of involvement in land racketeering and vowed to continue to demolish properties that were fraudulently acquired.

“I have never seen people like land-grabbing people in this place. I came in (and 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 – senior advocates. And I said, ‘what is this?’ Companies presented their own cases. Company A presented their own case, Company B presented their own, Company C, Company D, 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 that this so-called ethnic jingoist talked about 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 were able to take a final decision. You know what happened? These guys thought they were too smart and they started selling the land.”

The minister said there was a time when he wanted to commission a water park, and he was informed that he could not do so because those involved “had gone to court stopping me from commissioning the water park”.

“You see these guys (some officials in FCTA) are conniving with the plaintiff against the FCTA. I’ve never seen people who are so fraudulent like this! What they do here. They sued you, they sued me as FCT minister.

“They have court judgments in their pocket. I told him you are wasting time. His brother sent me a text message. I have never met his brother but he sent me a message saying, ‘You told your Ikwerre brothers you will deal with Igbos in FCT’. Imagine such.”

“Why do we behave like this in this country? We keep doing the same thing and expect different results. If you transfer a director, he would say, ‘Oh! It’s because I am Hausa! If you transfer another one, he would say, ‘It’s because I am a Muslim’, but why?” he added.

Wike said that the land in question was allocated when there was no minister, insisting that he didn’t see any court order restraining the ministry from entering the property.