FCT land fraud: ‘Not only 6 were involved’

FCTA toward end of Oct. announced the suspension of four staff of AGIS: Oluwadamilola Temidayo Adetiloye, a planning officer; Wasiu Olatunde Olajide, a programme officer; Mohammed Mohammed Saba a land officer; and Danladi Daniel, a clerical officer as well as two staff of the Land Administration Department, Yusuf Baba and Blessing U. Nwiyi.But the source […]

FCTA toward end of Oct. announced the suspension of four staff of AGIS: Oluwadamilola Temidayo Adetiloye, a planning officer; Wasiu Olatunde Olajide, a programme officer; Mohammed Mohammed Saba a land officer; and Danladi Daniel, a clerical officer as well as two staff of the Land Administration Department, Yusuf Baba and Blessing U. Nwiyi.
But the source said earlier investigations had revealed that more than that number had soiled their hands with the dirty deals.
The source who was involved in setting up AGIS said the office has become a cesspit (into which all criminal land acts in FCT flow).
The source explained why it will be difficult to prosecute suspects here: most of the employees are relations of the highly placed individuals – ministers, directors (serving or out of office) emirs/obas etc.
This, he said explains why AGIS’ staff that were fired when Nasir el-Rufai was FCT minister for involvement in land racketeering were reinstated.
The source said the suspended staff would not protest because they know the implication(s) of doing so.
The source told the story of a fresh graduate who came to AGIS and within six months built his own house there.
“Because AGIS does mainly computerized work, any time new hands are employed, they are taken to Europe for training in geo-spatial data management. But the work needs much more than training. What is paramount is good character. So long as the staff have no scruples, all the good training will come to naught and the aim of setting up AGIS will be defeated. This is the challenge that office is unfortunately facing,” the source lamented.  
Forgery of allocation papers, cloning of land document, allocation of land without the FCT Minister’s approval, presence (beyond regulated time of two years) of pockets of undeveloped plots of land in districts with engineering infrastructure, and missing of land documents in AGIS and Land Administration department are commonplace in AGIS.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other related Offences Commission (ICPC) in May last year, after a six-month study established that mass fraud takes place in AGIS.
It identified “existence of land syndicates and speculators, revocation of certain land titles without due process, fake layouts and fraudulent allocations in area councils, differences in land use in the records of AGIS and Urban and Regional Planning Department.”
Reacting to this report that not six were implicated, the Head Information/Customer Care, AGIS, an assistant director, Mr Cosmas Uzodinma said investigations are still ongoing in the matter. He described as mere hear-say many stories told about AGIS.