Will the owners of unoccupied Abuja estates stand up?
Reports flying around in the media have proven to the public that a lot of houses and estates in the city of Abuja are empty. Most of them are proceeds of the elaborate schemata of money laundering. But tell me: how can an average Nigerian living within the limits of his earning afford to pay […]
Reports flying around in the media have proven to the public that a lot of houses and estates in the city of Abuja are empty. Most of them are proceeds of the elaborate schemata of money laundering. But tell me: how can an average Nigerian living within the limits of his earning afford to pay such sums as would be needed to rent those houses? Several instances wherein ill-gotten wealth has been allegedly used to procure property abound. Past and present public servants are alleged to own mansions in Dubai, the United Kingdom and the US, and property dotting the nooks and crannies of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. There is also a case involving a former Chief of Staff who spent the sum of N1.4billion (One Billion, One Hundred Million Naira) allegedly stolen from the accounts of the Nigerian Air Force to purchase a mansion situated at No. 6, Ogun River Street, Off Danube Street, Maitama, Abuja. For lack of exhaustive investigations, these properties have not been seized and confiscated.
Therefore, if the report on Premium Times of Tuesday September 5th 2017 is something we can put our finger on, that the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property may soon take over empty houses in Abuja and sell them, then we can all rejoice that indeed some change is coming. You will agree with me that if all these laundered monies were properly expended in our beloved nation’s industrial, ICT and Agricultural sectors, this country today will be a center of excellence and an attraction to foreign investors. Today, politicians send their children abroad for studies believing that our institutions are already crumbled and substandard. If all these laundered monies would have been used to enhance our educational system and promote good academic research in our universities, matters would be different today in Nigeria.
To this end, I suggest that the federal government should look critically into the area of illegally acquired choice properties both home and abroad. In the UK, British citizens cannot buy a home with cash. Rather they pay for a home via a mortgage system. But that same Britain, the US and other EU countries would accept large amounts of money from Nigerians to buy a home instead of helping Nigeria to fob off or arrest those stealing from public purses to buy homes abroad. Most of us were happy with the introduction of the BVN, and which has saved the billions of naira which money launderers would have easily siphoned. For the criminally minded amongst us, their one hope today is built on the landed properties and hotels acquired in and outside the country with looted funds. Politicians who acquire expansive and expensive landed property and erect choice hotels are not ghosts. They are human beings. They can be reined in for questioning and prosecuted accordingly. I urge the anti-corruption agencies to continue to pursue those who are using stolen public monies to build houses which the average Nigerian cannot afford to rent.
Erhisohwode Assurance Ovie, Benin City.