All the various arms of the FCT Administration have their specific responsibilities. The system has its inbuilt mechanism for checking abuse. Going by the laid-down procedures, any distortion of the Abuja Master Plan could easily be traced to the department that is responsible. In land matters, five departments are key; Urban and Regional Planning (URP), Lands, Development Control, AGIS and Surveys and Mapping.

As the custodian of the Abuja Master Plan, the URP supervised all the designs for all the districts of the city. In order to prevent abuse and distortions of the plans, requests for allocation of all lands by applicants, are routed to the URP department to regulate the land uses and sizes.

Depending on the sizes and uses of the requests in the forms filled by applicants, it is mandatory for some requests to be accompanied with schematic designs and environmental impact assessments of the proposed development.

In order to respect the principle of land use zoning, the requested land for residential, commercial, industrial, recreational and others, would subsequently be assigned to areas earmarked for the intended uses in the plan by the URP Department before recommendations are made to the minister for approval for the land allocations.

Due to some errors of commission and omission, if allocations are made in contravention of the land use plan, the development control has the power to make the developer to comply with the land use before granting development permit.

Furthermore, while processing for building plans approval, residential use for example, the designs must match the specific development density of where the plot is located, all densities have their specific development requirements. The submissions are subsequently sent by the Development Control Department to the URP for further verification of the land use as designed by the developer, and to Lands Department for further confirmation of the land ownership, to checkmate incidences of ownership conflicts prior to commencement of physical development.

For the purpose of ensuring equity in land distribution, to as much as possible enable as many Nigerians, who can afford, to own land in Abuja, there is a limit to the size of land allocation to individuals and organisations. For urban land the highest that can be allocated is 10 hectares to be used for housing estates or comprehensive developments. For Regional or Area council, it is 20 hectares maximum.

For individual residential plots, other than special residential plots that could be up to 3,000 square meters, the maximum is 2,500 square meters for all the densities.  Unfortunately, this regulation is being violated with impunity by the FCT Administration.

There were incidences in some of the previous administrations, but the abuse presently in the current administration is extremely beyond comprehension.

Outrageous and mind-boggling sizes are now allocated by the minister. The Abuja land speculation market is now inundated with land for sale bearing outrageous and mind-boggling sizes, purportedly in the name of mixed-use or comprehensive developments. A particular one sighted for sale was more than 300 hectares with requested cost of N100 billion.

Many of the plots being speculated are located in Guzape II and Maitama II. For some strategic or security reasons, in some of the documents that are most outrageous, the basic information like file number, plot number, name and address of the beneficiary are obscure. While in others, all the information was not blocked. The hidden information would be made known to any agent that would bring a genuine buyer to conduct a search.

A particular plot located in the Central Area District earmarked for transportation corridor is now fenced, obviously, suggesting its allocation by the Wike administration. Since the commencement of the city development, all the previous administrations never contemplated tempering with this land for strategic reasons and the importance of its function when finally implemented by any future administration. It coincided with the period the URP Director was summarily removed and replaced by Wike. The harmless gentleman is popularly known for respect for rules and regulations.

Obviously, he would be considered as a threat, because he would not violate his professional ethics and support any violation of the Master plan.

The respect accorded, not to violate the proposals on some specific land in the city by as many as 15 ministers that reigned before Nyesom Wike’s tenure, should speak volumes. Special plots of land that were reserved for the implementation of very vital projects for the well-being of the city should never be surreptitiously violated. We would like to remind the minister, who has had the privilege of travelling abroad, witnessing and using their metro services, that his action would deny Abuja, the national capital, the privilege of having it. His conscience should tell him that posterity will never forgive him.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that there are indigenous people in Abuja, whom the lands were acquired from, for overriding public interest. They made sacrifices for the nation in order to actualise the Abuja project.

Unfortunately, under their eyes, billions of naira are illicitly made from their ancestral lands, using administrative machinery as a cover. On the hand, they are left wallowing in abject poverty. If we must progress as a nation, trust must be given to those that are trustworthy, and not the other way round.