Speaking during a recent interview with Arise TV, Senator Kingibe accused the minister of unilaterally reducing a N200 million land bill—to be paid on land by his son—to a mere N2 million, describing the move as unethical and unfair.
The Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ireti Kingibe, has accused the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, of gross abuse of office and acting with impunity in the administration of land in Abuja.
Speaking during a recent interview with Arise TV, Senator Kingibe accused the minister of unilaterally reducing a N200 million land bill—to be paid on land by his son—to a mere N2 million, describing the move as unethical and unfair.
“I have documents to show that Minister Wike allocated lands to his son, huge tracts of land, as he says, as his son they are entitled to lands but the bills of N200 million that they need to pay, a hundred million that they need to pay elsewhere, they wrote to him asking that he should give a waiver on the bill and reduce it,” Kingibe said.
“Within 48 hours, they are going from N200 million to N2 million. At the very least, it is unfair, it is unethical.”
Kingibe also threatened to escalate the matter, saying she intends to present evidence before the appropriate authorities for investigation and accountability.
“Oh, I’m going to take those documents and go to the body, the equivalent of his state assembly, and insist that that assembly, the president from whom Wike derives his powers, goes back to the National Assembly for approval for everything,” she vowed.
The senator didn’t stop there. She accused Wike of running the FCT in an autocratic manner and disregarding the rule of law.
“The primary thing is that the minister doesn’t obey the rule of law. He’s autocratic. He doesn’t follow any rules or any laws,” she alleged. “And when you try to draw his attention that governance is based on laws, the rule of law, he doesn’t accept that.”
She further criticised Wike for reinstating agencies without legal backing, bypassing the National Assembly.
The senator also raised concerns about the revocation of large portions of land belonging to the University of Abuja.
“Abuja University had approximately 11,000 hectares. Minister Wike has revoked 7,000 of it and left them with four. It is definitely against the Land Use Act for you to take land from institutions to give them to individuals,” she said.
In a further critique of his policies, Kingibe condemned the mass sacking of indigent women who previously worked as street sweepers, saying their removal without replacement has left the city untidy.
“Every minister has come and found the streets being cleaned by indigent women… He comes, he’s fired them all… Then he doesn’t replace them with mechanical street sweepers. So Abuja is looking dirty.”
She also accused the minister of harassing FCT residents and foreign missions over ground rent issues.
“Minister Wike has been harassing all of FCT over ground rent, including embassies,” she added.
Quoting a report, SaharaReporters earlier reported that Wike was accused of abusing his office to allocate sprawling hectares of Abuja’s most valuable lands to his son, Joaquin Wike.
This was revealed in an exclusive report by The Peoples Gazette, which cited inside sources and official documents to support this staggering abuse of power orchestrated by the FCT Minister.
The report revealed that Mr Wike, the immediate former Rivers State governor, since assuming office in August 2023, signed off on over 2,000 hectares of prime real estate to his son.
It revealed that to achieve this, the minister bypassed regulations and skipped payment of critical fees, contrary to the Nigerian Constitution and civil service ethics.
The Peoples Gazette stated that these allocations span some of Abuja’s most exclusive districts, including Maitama, Asokoro, Guzape, Bwari, and Gaduwa. This amounts to roughly 2,082 hectares or about 40,000 plots, with an estimated market value of $3.6 billion, the report noted.
Leave a Reply