The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has fired back at Senator Ireti Kingibe over her remark on the recent sealing of properties in Abuja for failure to pay ground rent.
Naijaonpoint reported that FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, directed the sealing of properties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national secretariat.
Despite President Bola Tinubu‘s directive that all seized and sealed properties be reopened for a grace period of 14 days, Wike has yet to implement the directive.
In a statement on Thursday, Senator Kingibe noted that it was illegal to seal property or seize land because of ground rent.
The Labour Party Senator explained that the law provided for a fine or surcharge as punishment for defaulters.
In response, Wike, in a statement through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, urged the Senator representing the FCT, Kingibe, to purge herself of the hatred she is harbouring against him.
Olayinka said Kingibe does not need to hate Wike, stressing that the recent diatribe against the FCT Minister was a further advertisement of her ignorance of the Land Use Act and penchant for seeking cheap political gains on every issue.
Describing Kingibe’s comment on the enforcement of payment of Ground Rent as ridiculously illogical, the FCT Minister’s Spokesperson said land allocation requires some conditions that must be met, and one of them is annual payment of Ground Rent.
Wike’s aide added that Kingibe should have said that landowners in the FCT have the right to refuse to pay the necessary bills stated in the Certificate of Occupancy issued to them, and when they do so, the government should pick up a samba and tambourine and sing their praises.
He said, “It is ridiculously embarrassing that a serving Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, whose duty is to make laws, is ignorant of the provisions of Section 28, Subsections (a) and (b) of the Land Use Act.
“For the education of Senator Kingibe, Section 28, Subsections (a) and (b) of the Land Use Act provides that ‘The Government may revoke a Statutory Right of Occupancy on the ground of; (a) a breach of any of the provisions which a certificate of occupancy is by Section 10 deemed to contain; and (b) a breach of any term contained in the Certificate of Occupancy.
“Now, is annual payment of Ground Rent not part of the terms contained in the Certificate of Occupancy? Or Senator Kingibe just chose to advertise her myopic attitude to anything Wike?
“Now, if land allottees refused to pay Ground Rent for 10 to 43 years, Senator Ireti Kingibe will just look away if she was the FCT Minister?”