SHOCKING REVELATIONS: How FCT Officials Steal Houses, Lands From Abuja Indigenes In Huge Resettlement Fraud

Below is an the revealing details from an official investigation made by Premium Times regarding how FCT Officials partake in resettlement fraud to the detriment of Abuja indegenes:
At the centre of the Apo Resettlement District, on the fringe of the Abuja city centre, sits an imposing High Court building, distances away from a police station and a school.
With no hospital or market in this sprawling community developed for the indigenous people of Abuja, and inhabited by mainly low income Nigerians, the court, and the police post, and the school are about all of government’s presence in the District.
Daily, children cover long distances on foot to the crowded school, from some of Abuja’s most horribly designed homes, handed to the parents by the government as compensation for their lands confiscated since 1976, for the development of Nigeria’s sprawling capital city.

“You build court and police station to check people, but you don’t give them houses to live in,” said Gimba Gbaiza, the leader of Greater Gbayi Development Initiative, a group dedicated to the cause of Abuja natives, which has followed the three-decade old resettlement effort.
Now, a government plan to expand facilities in the area, provide markets, build a health facility and more schools for the three benefiting communities – Apo, Garki and Akpanjanya – has failed with assigned plots cornered by dubious government officials, who steal lands in an area exclusively reserved for the natives, the investigation has shown.
The schemes are well-known in the community, and often involve government staff transferring land and house titles to non-natives for money, shortchanging thousands of qualified indigenes. When allegations spring up, officials boldly shrug them off, and ask for evidence of wrongdoing, confident that full details of the ownership of titles have, and may, never become public.
For more than two months, three relevant government offices- Department of Resettlement and Compensation of the Federal Capital Development Administration (FCDA), the office of the Minister of FCT, and the Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS)- rebuffed multiple Freedom of Information (FOI) requests by the media seeking those details.
But a recent government investigation, ordered by the Minister of State for FCT, Olajumoke Akinjide, found that dozens of lands meant for public infrastructures like schools, health centres, police posts, and recreational facilities for the resettlement district, were illegally sold by FCDA officials to non-natives, who convert them for private properties and businesses.
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The report established cases of indigenes shortchanged during allocations, with their houses and land titles turning up in other hands, in a scam instigated by officials, often times, in connivance with the locals of Abuja.
“As big as the place is, it cannot contain the three communities. The reason is that after giving the lands, they (government officials) still share it among themselves,” Mr. Gbaiza said.
The stories are intriguing, and many of them defy effort at resolution. For example, Sunday Wanyidasa, an indigene of Apo, one of the communities with rights to a government home, was awarded a letter for House No. 3, Zone D, with Enumeration No. GK/05/2662. While he waited to complete formalities that would have seen him take possession of the property, the original copy of the allocation letter suddenly disappeared from government files, while others checked into their new apartments in 2009.
When he protested, the deputy director in the Department of Resettlement and Compensation, Helen Obiechina, assured him that a directive had been given for Mr. Wanyidasa to be issued another allocation for immediate check-in.
Without a response months on, he reached out to Jisanlo Zephaniah, the then departmental head, and Mrs. Obiechina’s superior, who informed him the allocation had been signed for, and collected by the “owner”. No official of the department, including Bayo Fahgbon, in charge of the allocations, however, agreed to divulge the identity of the “owner”.
When Mr. Wanyidasa gave a further chase, another official, Ogunmodede Tunde, admitted his title was never released since 2009, and again, assured of a resolution. But as the drama unfolded, Mr. Wanyidasa found out during a visit to the property, that an occupant, named Unde Ayo, had since checked in on a N160, 000 rental agreement shockingly “signed” by Mr. Wanyidasa.
Not only was Mr. Ayo’s claim to the property illegal, but as his name confirmed, he was a non-native and had no direct legitimacy in the resettlement area. Yet, he tendered a separate agreement transferring the tenancy to Ifeanyi Onuegbu, at N700, 000 for two years. That lease expired last May.
A scheme far too common, its implication was clear: with stringent procedure for claiming any allocated house, such can only be an inside job, struck by some officials, many residents and officials of the FCDA said.

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Agbani To Host International Fashion Week

Agbani won the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria pageant and Miss World pageant respectively in 2001. She said her nomination as the hostess of the maiden edition of the Port Harcourt International Fashion Week was a privilege and an honour.
“It was on the platform of Rivers State that I came to win the MBGN title and thereafter the Miss World pageant in 2001. So, an initiative of the state government that seeks to promote, encourage young and aspiring designers and models into the professional world is one that I would gladly support and, in fact, I see it as an honour to have been considered for the role,” she said.
The three-day event is a Private-Public Partnership initiative of the state government and it is aimed at bringing together professional fashion designers from Nigeria and around the world. It would also be a wonderful opportunity for upcoming designers to undergo tutelage under the mentorship of professionals.
Young designers would showcase their works in a competition that would have the winner go home with a cash prize of N500, 000 and an all-expenses paid six months scholarship to the reputable Capecon Fashion School, South Africa.

READ MORE:  http://news.naij.com/47108.html

PHOTOS: WHAT IS SHE WEARING?? Check Out Toolz As She Displays Her Curves In Figure-Hugging Dress

OAP Tolu 'Toolz' Oniru certainly loves to show her curves.
Toolz, who is currently the host for Nigeria's popular singing contest, X-Factor, has been the reason a lot of Nigerian fans are glued to the show. Not only does she mesmerize audience with her presenting skills, she also keeps them guessing as she appears show after show in jaw-dropping outfits that accentuate her famous curves.
See her recent looks below and let us know if you think she rocked it;
READ MORE:  http://news.naij.com/47111.html

PHOTOS: Kate Henshaw, Segun Arinze At Monalisa Chinda's Birthday Party

Nollywood darling, Monalisa Chinda, who became a year older yesterday, celebrated the big day by having fun with her friends.
Monalisa Chinda and other acting colleagues like Joseph Benjamin, Segun Arinze and Kate Henshaw joined her to celebrate at a private party she hosted last night.
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"Dbanj is a savvy Showman"-NewYork Times reviews DKM Album

D’Banj is one of the great African pop stars of the past decade, a charming singer but, more important, a savvy showman. For years, this Nigerian singer was at the center of the Mo’ Hits Records stable, but now he’s struck out on his own with a new label and the compilation “D’Banj Presents DKM (D’ King’s Men)” (DB/G.O.O.D./Sony). It’s an alluring contemporary pop album with an emphasis on king-size dance music, like the militarily efficient “Don’t Tell Me Nonsense” and the flash of last year’s excellent smash hit “Oliver Twist.” 

D’Banj is also a savvy synthesizer of the old and new Africa, as on “Nous les Meilleurs (We the Best),” a duet with the Congolese singer Fally Ipupa. But really, D’Banj has his eye on the world; he’s signed to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music imprint, and the lovely “Scape Goat (The Fix)” features what’s certainly the most cheerful version of Mr. West you’ll hear this year, or any year.

Massive Vacancies At Hamilton Lloyd And Associates(10 Positions)

Our client is a market leader in the telecommunication infrastructure provision business with head quarters in Nigeria and operations in other parts of West Africa.

Due to internal

vacancies, they are currently looking to hire the following positions.

1: TSP Site acquisition cordinator

2: Regional Field Operation(SAQ/CSR)

3:Regional Manager

4: Quality Specialist/ Site supervisor

5: Upgrade, IBS electrical installtion&site supervision

6: Overall Project Coordinator

7: Structural Engineer/Site Design Specialist.

8: CAD specialist/Documentation

9: Documentation Assistance

10: Facility Manager

Know anyone with these titles in the Telecommunications sector? Interested candidates should call 08057800888 for more information & Send CV’s to angel@hamiltonlloydandassociates.com, nwadiuto@hamiltonlloydandassociates.com, uche@hamiltonlloydandassociates.com.

Don’t forget to add the title of the job you are applying for. Only qualified candidates would be contacted.

fashion of the week

MOURINHO: IT CAN BE A VINTAGE LEAGUE

Posted on: Sat 14 Sep 2013

Jose Mourinho has consistently stated he believes six clubs are genuine title challengers this season, and nothing that happened before the transfer window closed has changed his mind.

In general, the Chelsea manager rates the other top clubs as stronger than last season. Manchester United kept together the player that won the championship and added Marouane Fellaini, a player who knows the requirements of the league and David Moyes well.

Last season's runners-up, Manchester City, have supplemented an already impressive group of players with new names who are at the peak of their careers rather than works in progress, and Liverpool can only benefit from three wins out of three so far.

'Brendan [Rodgers] did his work well with what he has at his disposal,' Mourinho says, 'and a good start is always a good start.

'A good start is always very motivational, it wakes up the people around the club and creates something buzzing around, so it is very important for them.

'Tottenham of course lost the player of the year but they bought incredibly. They spent a lot of money and despite losing a player like Gareth Bale, they have two teams.'

It was Arsenal who at the last moment made English football's big signing with the transfer of Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid, a player Mourinho knows well, but he already ranked the Gunners as potential champions.

'You look at their players and Theo Walcott is not a 17-year-old boy anymore. Jack Wilshere is a starting player for England. Santi Cazorla is a European champion. We are not speaking about that young team that we played at Cardiff in a Carling Cup final.

'They are a team with top players and with the most experienced manager in the Premier League, so they were title contenders without Mesut.

'When they lost the first match against Villa, I told people that defeat means nothing because they have a good team and after that, they started winning matches and some of them very difficult ones, butMesut Ozil is a fantastic player so they are better.

'My squad is a very good squad too. I have solutions for every position with a good balance between the experienced players and the young boys with great quality to develop.

'So I think we can have a great Premier League when speaking about the contenders, but of course the other 14 teams are very important for this league and they will decide a lot of things, because it is with them that we win and we lose points, and it is with them that matches become great or not so great.'

Chelsea made an offer for Wayne Rooney this summer but no transfer materialised and by and large the leading clubs have not purchased English players. Mourinho has a suggestion why.

'It can be for different reasons but financially the situation is not simple,' he says.

'I like a young English player, and the market is closed but I asked a question to understand a little the position where he is in the market. We are speaking about a very young player and it is like he has 50 caps when he has zero caps. The price for English players is very high, the market is very difficult.'

That, Mourinho believes, is due to the financial stability of clubs in England compared with some elsewhere, including big outfits in economic difficulties who are not in a position to resist offers for their players.

'It is a healthy situation for English clubs and from that point of view it is good,' he adds.

Now the identity of his squad is fixed, it is a straight-forward case of getting the best out of the group of players and winning matches.

'I don't know if I keep them happy or not, but I am happy because I have so many good players and I will let them speak on the pitch,' Mourinho explains.

'I will judge them on the pitch. I will not judge them on words, not on interviews, not on agents or parents or friends commenting in the press or Twitter or anything like that.

'I will let football speak and I will let football decide, and if one guy is the man of the match, he has to play the next match.'

You Will Not Believe Why These Two Club Girls Were Arraigned In Court (Must Read)

The police on Wednesday arraigned two clubs “girls’’ in a Grade 1 Area Court, Aso Pada, Mararaba, for disturbing public peace and constituting themselves into a nuisance. They are Treasure Edobor, 25, of Aso and Charity Jemo, 23, of Mararaba in Nasarawa State. The prosecutor, Insp. Friday Idache, told the court that the matter was first reported on Sept. 10, at the ‘A’ Division Police Station, Mararaba by Edobor (second accused). He said that Edobor alleged that at about 10 p.m., while she was at the City Rock Hotel, Mararaba, Jemo assaulted her without provocation. “During police investigation, we found out that both of them engaged in a free for all,’’ the prosecutor told the court. He said that the offence contravened provisions of Section 113 of the Penal Code. If convicted, the accused persons can spend a year in prison or be given an option to pay a fine. The accused persons, who were not represented by counsel, pleaded not guilty to the charge. The presiding officer, Albert Maga, admitted the accused to bail in the sum of N100,000 each and a surety each in like sum. Maga ordered that the sureties must possess landed property and be resident within the jurisdiction of the court. He adjourned the case to Sept. 26, for hearing.

President Goodluck Jonathan has ignored the advice given to him by the Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih, over his 2015 presidential ambition. READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/47094.html

Anenih had during the PDP post-convention dinner held at the Banquet Hall of the
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Presidential Villa, Abuja on Sunday said the President could not afford to continue to tell Nigerians that time was not ripe for him to declare his interest in the Presidential race.

He advised the President to declare his ambition either this month or latest by October this year. The politician said the President’s declaration latest by October was necessary to give the party a proper direction and set the agenda straight as the party, for the first time, had embarked on discussing its future.

“I will appeal to our leader, the President of this country, that at the end of September or as we enter October, we should not tell anybody that the time is not right. I think the time is right. It is good that we tell our people where we are going to; what our journey will be like,” Anenih said in reference to Jonathan’s 2015 ambition.

But the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, told one of our correspondents in Abuja on Thursday that the President was not contemplating changing his mind on his decision to declare his position on the poll only in 2014.

He said regardless of that advice, the President would rather stick to the 2014 date which he had promised Nigerians, adding that Anenih’s admonition was the PDP chief’s personal opinion.

He said, “Chief Anenih gave his own opinion. As Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, I have told Nigerians before and I am repeating it now that President Jonathan will tell them whether he will contest or not in 2014. We stick to that decision, our plan is to tell Nigerians our position in 2014, not now.”

On whether the crisis in the ruling PDP, particularly the opposition of seven state governors, was not a hurdle to the President’s ambition, the presidential aide said the crisis in the party was not more than that of any other party in the country. He said the situation was a normal occurrence in a big political party like the PDP.

Gulak then expressed the conviction that the ugly situation would soon be a thing of the past. He said, “There is no crisis in the PDP that is more than any other party in the country. Internal disagreement is a normal thing. It will always happen in a big party like the PDP. It has happened before.

“I am assuring you that the crisis will become a thing of the past very soon.”

Meanwhile, the opposition All Progressives Congress has berated the President and the PDP for repeatedly breaking the law which forbids parties from campaigning for the 2015 elections.

The party was reacting to Thursday’s inauguration of the Elders Committee of the Goodluck Jonathan Support Group in Abuja.

A former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ibrahim Mantu, had said during the event that he was convinced that 2015 was in the pocket of the PDP.

But the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, told Saturday PUNCH in Abuja on Thursday that the Jonathan administration had enthroned a culture of impunity.

He explained that the President’s supporters had carried on as if there were no laws guiding the process.

He said the Independent National Electoral Commission had warned politicians against early campaigns, adding that Section 99 (1) of the Electoral Act 2010 ( As amended) stipulates that campaigns shall commence 90 days to the election and end 24 hours to the Election Day.

Mohammed, said, “They did not start (campaigns) today. The First Lady’s peace and empowerment rally that led to the closure of Abuja was the beginning of Jonathan’s campaign.

“The ladies were wearing T-shirts bearing Jonathan’s pictures. This government has enthroned a culture of impunity.”

But his counterpart for the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh, dismissed these claims.

He explained that the inauguration of the elders committee for the Goodluck Support Group had nothing to do with the 2015 election.

According to him, the group was set up to propagate the activities of the Jonathan administration. This, he said, they had done successfully over the years. The publicity secretary insisted that no law had been broken.

Metuh said, “The opposition is quick to cry foul because they don’t have anything to do. The opposition in Nigeria cannot produce any agenda. They don’t have any plan for the country.

“So all they do is to criticise and cry wolf where there is none and the opposition we have in Nigeria is the worst opposition that we ever had in democracy anywhere. They are a bunch of frustrated people.”

He argued that the inauguration of the Elders Committee of the GSG was in continuation of its efforts to strengthen its activities and further enlighten members of the public about the achievements of the Jonathan administration.

Metuh also said PDP and Jonathan had not flouted any known law of the country.

Also speaking on the issue, the national coordinator of the group, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, said the committee was not particular about 2015.

Gulak, who is also the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, argued that the organisation had been in existence since 2010 and had made positive contributions towards the unity of the country.

He said, “We are not particular about 2015. The Goodluck Support Group has been in existence since 2010 and we are sure that the group has contributed its quota to the unity of this country in enlightening Nigerians on the programmes of the administration.

“We have been working at the grassroots level, we have been working conscientiously, we have been enlightening the people about the need for peace. And the group felt that it needed a council of elders that would sit back and use their wisdom and continue to advise us.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission has, however, declined to make a pronouncement on the issue.

When contacted, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, said he was yet to get a full picture of what transpired at the event.

He told one of our correspondents, “ We need to get enough information on this issue before we make any pronouncement.”

INEC, had in a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to its chairman, Kayode Idowu, on June 8, 2013 warned politicians against early campaigns citing provisions of Section 99(1) of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended).

The section stipulates that campaigns shall commence 90 days to the election and end 24 hours to the Election Day.

The statement came against the backdrop of campaign posters of leading politicians such as President Goodluck Jonathan, Congress for Progress Change (CPC) national leader, Maj.-Gen Muhammadu Buhari; Rivers State Governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi; and his Jigawa State counterpart, Alhaji Sule Lamido, which had surfaced in various parts of the country.

The commission warned that it would not hesitate to sanction politicians and political parties that violated the provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act as regard early campaigns.

It also called on security agencies to arrest violators as such campaigns were a threat to democracy.
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/47094.html

We Didn’t Block Amaechi – Police

However, the Rivers State Police Command on Thursday denied blocking Governor Amaechi, from gaining access into the Government House.

The command in a statement signed by its Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Angela Agabe, described media reports on the matter as “incorrect, false, fictitious and wrong in its entirety”.

The statement reads, “The attention of the police command has been drawn to stories making the round in the media that the police blocked the road to the Rivers State Government House in Port Harcourt, denying His Excellency, Governor Chibuike Amaechi ,access to the Government House.

The police state categorically that they did not block the road leading to the Government House, neither did they deny Governor Rotimi Amaechi access to the Government House in Port Harcourt or elsewhere.

“The story is incorrect, false, fictitious and wrong in its entirety and it is calculated to mislead the people of Rivers State, Nigerians and the general public. The Nigeria Police Force deems it necessary to place in proper perspective the event that gave rise to the wrong information being peddled in the media.’’
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/47093.html