By Ubong Ukpong, Abuja

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, (ICPC), yesterday, accused officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority, (FCDA), of conniving with members of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria, (REDAN), to swindle beneficiaries of the mass housing scheme in the territory.

In his submission at the investigative hearing on the operations of real estate developers in the FCT, ICPC Chairman, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, said that the land department of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, (FCTA), was conniving with REDAN to swindle Nigerians in the territory.

He said his Commission has received several petitions and complaints from the real estate sector, off-buyers, developers, bothering on forgery, non-delivery of projects, marketing of fake land, fraudulent allocation, and refusal of government to pay fair values for acquired land amongst others.

This is even as the House of Representatives tasked security agencies in the country, to intensify their operations to fish out perpetrators  of all the ongoing sharp practices in the real estate sector.

The ICPC boss said the FCDA has refused to sanitize the real estate sector, even though they know about the sharp practices, “but look the other way.”

The Chairman said from investigations, the developers collected massive land with agreement to pay counterpart funding and develop the houses for intending beneficiaries, but only to turn around and sell the land to the highest bidders.

Owasanoye confirmed that corrupt public officers were using the real estate as vehicle to hide ill-gotten wealth.

He asked that registration of land titles be made compulsory, so as to know the proper owners of the estates so that public officers do not continue to hide behind third party to acquire illegal properties.

The ICPC boss said many of the estate houses in Abuja were actually used for money laundering, which explained why the houses were left unoccupied even years after completion.

“The ICPC has over the years received a number of petitions since inception. Even though we have not aggregated the numbers that relate to land matters, 

“We have however received a number of petitions from stakeholders in the real estate and housing sector, off-takers, prospective buyers and the general public regarding the behavior and antics of real estate developers within the FCT and sometimes outside of the FCT on this very important subject matter. 

“These complaints and petitions are varied. They bother on forgery, the cloning of land documents, double or multiple land allocations, allocation of land without the minister’s approval, revocation of land title without due process, non-delivery of projects, embezzlement of sourced capital, land racketeering, the use of land syndicates and speculators, the marketing of fake layouts, fraudulent allocation of land, inordinate delay in processing of land documents for those who subscribe to their projects, general abuse of office, bribery, dishonesty, fraud, payment scams, or the refusal of government itself to pay fair value for acquired land and the concomitant refusal of settlers and traditional owners to give access to legitimate land beneficiaries and other related issues and challenges.

“Our investigations have led to the recovery of assets and funds, which are either considered to have been diverted that were retrieved in the public interest. In some situations, we have simply ensured that the projects that contemplated were delivered to the beneficiaries who had paid for them. 

“Furtherance to the above conducted a systems study and review of mass housing delivery in the FCT in 2010 and 2011 where it was discovered that members of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), who had been allocated huge plots of land for mass housing development in the FCT in collaboration with the Federal Government through the Federal Mortgage Bank and its responsibility to provide infrastructure upon which the allocations were made to them, and they were to work with National Housing Fund contributors. These developers failed in the payment of counterpart funding and the delivery of infrastructure to project site and rather they resorted to offering and selling the plots to the highest bidder contrary to the policy. 

“The subsequent pressure this put on low and middle income earners is that it becomes a push factor for public sector corrupting public servants who are desperate for their own homes to subvert the processes, government policies and abuse their office for private gain in order to meet the desire for decent housing.

“In a related vein, corrupt public officers use real estate investment as vehicle for hiding ill gotten wealth and money laundering. Public officers acquire estates in pseudonyms to conceal the illegal origin of funds.” 

However, Chairman REDAN, Aliyu Wamakko, disowned all those fingered in the said sharp practices, saying that they were not REDAN members.

While Wamakko gave a list of his members in the FCT as 223, insisting that he knew all of them to be of impeccable character, the EFCC said it has established a list of 1000 members of REDAN in the FCT already, while the FCTA land department claimed a list of 181, the discrepancy which led the Hon Blessing Onoche Onuh-led  ad-hoc committee to order REDAN to produce its membership register in the territory.