Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Barr Nyesom Wike, has said the FCT Administration has decided to issue new Certificates of Occupancy (C of O) to residents of River Park Estate who had built houses on the land, directly allocated by the FCT Administration.
Addressing newsmen after an inspection on Saturday at the estate, Wike explained that the FCT administration had no business dealings with Paulo Homes, a company involved in a disagreement with a Canadian company, Jonah Capital.
It would be recalled that the Federal FCTA has halted construction on over 30 substructures at River Park Estate due to non-compliance with planning regulations, as developers were accused of proceeding with building despite their lease agreements being revoked and a ministerial committee recommending that undeveloped plots be returned to the FCTA.
The Barr. Salman Dako-led committee found the Development Lease Agreement (DLA) had expired and been breached, prompting the plot revocation in line with Clause 9.2 of the DLA.
Clarifying the ongoing dispute at the River Park Estate, Wike stated that the lease agreement between the FCT and the companies involved had expired, and any further development on the land without a valid agreement would be considered illegal.
“When I got a petition, I got a letter from the SNA National Committee, which invited me to one called Jonah Capital, which is a Canadian company. And that company has a disagreement with the FCT.
“Another third party. They call Paulo’s homes have no business with FCT. Let it be on record. They have no business with FCT. Only the other companies disagree.
“Unfortunately, that disagreement had expired by the friction of time. Apart from that, entering into an agreement with a third party is a contravention of one of the clauses of the lease agreement.
“And what we agreed to do, in order not to make a lot of people, Nigerians, who may have either fraudulently obtained or built houses, we decided that we will give them back C of O to say that directly allocated by the FCT administration. And so this cry that, oh, they want to take their property, is neither here nor there. That is not the intention of the FCT administration.
“And when I said, I think the lease agreement had expired, no more developments. And what one of them did, Polio Home did, was overnight, because he started to do construction, to tie the hands of the administration, which of course, you know, will not succumb to such”.
