The Honorable Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, shared an account of his decision to revoke the title of an unoccupied land that had been allocated to Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. This decision was made following a dinner meeting with the Managing Director of the company.
How I Revoked Julius Berger’s Land After Dinner With MD – Nyeson Wike
On Monday, October 21, Governor Wike made this announcement during the official flag-off ceremony for the Design and Construction of 40 Judges’ Quarters in the nation’s capital city.
The FCT minister said that 70 percent of the funds for the project have been released after its approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) last month, adding that out of the 40 units to be built, 20 will be allocated to the Court Supreme Court of FCT. 10 in the Federal Court and 10 in the Court of Appeal.
Speaking to CJN, Wike recalled how the land was acquired for the proposed facilities.
“My Lord, let me bring to your notice. You have seen this land here. When we were looking for where to get land to build. I was driving around looking for empty land and I got here and saw this empty land.
I saw the big post ‘Julius Berger’. I didn’t talk. I called the director of lands, ‘who owns that land?’ And he said Julius Berger. When was it allocated? He said about 15, 20 years ago. 15, 20 years ago? Nothing has been done? I didn’t bother.
So, I invited the MD Julius Berger. He came and we had dinner. I didn’t talk about the land. The next day, he was in the office and he saw the revocation letter as a matter of public interest.
He called me and said ‘but I had dinner with you’. I said ‘yes; we had dinner but we didn’t discuss the land’.
How will the government allocate land for more than 20 years for organisation to develop and they did not develop it? Thank God they did not develop it and now we can have it,” Wike told the gathering.