FCT minister Nyesom Wike, on Monday, accused the University of Abuja of land grabbing, slashing the institution’s total lands from 11,000 to 4,000 hectares.

“This road has helped us to stop the land grabbing by the University,” Mr Wike said at the commissioning of the access road to the permanent site of EFCC Academy in Abuja. “The University on their own grabbed 11,000 hectares. I said that will not happen. No document, nothing. You see them fencing everywhere, and before you knew it, they would have gone to sell our land.”

Accusing the university of grabbing hectares of land without proper documentation, the minister said the hectares carved out from the institution would be reallocated for infrastructural other purposes.

“So I have told the Director of Lands and the other relevant agencies to carve out 4,000 hectares and give to the University. The other ones would be reallocated because we are going to provide the roads here and that is the true situation. We cannot allow people. You just wake up in the morning, all you see is just fencing all over, no document, nothing. That is not the way we are supposed to work,” he said.

Mr Wike decried non-use of hectares of land for infrastructural development, expressing readiness to accommodate the National Assembly’s legislative institute in the area.

“This Giri District, of course, has to be developed like other districts. What we have done is now having created this access road, we have told the Executive Secretary of FCDA, and other relevant agencies to start working out how we are going to do the roads within the district.

“Most of the problems we are having here is that sometimes when you allocate land, there are no facilities, no infrastructure and people are not encouraged. So, we will do everything we can to see that basic infrastructure is being provided,” the minister noted.

University of Abuja’s acting registrar, Roseline Adakayi, could not be reached for comments on Mr Wike’s decision as her contact was switched off.

Mr Wike’s slashing of the institution’s lands came days after Peoples Gazette exclusively reported the minister allocated lucrative lands across the FCT to one of his sons, Joaquin. The minister acquired approximately 2,082 hectares of land in his son’s name, with municipal officials stating that the assets could be sold for over $3.6 billion. 

Following public outrage, the minister said the lands were awarded to a company for farming purposes without saying that the company, Joaq Farms and Estates Ltd, belonged to his son. 

The minister also stated that no laws barred him from granting land rights to his family members, contrary to Article 5 of the Fifth Schedule of the Nigerian Constitution, which prohibits the use of public office for personal gain. 

President Bola Tinubu had since ordered an investigation into the minister’s apparent corruption and abuse of office.