River Park Estate residents to get new C of O — Wike

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, who 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 homes have no business with FCT. Let it be on record. They have no business with FCT. Only the other companies that have a disagreement.

“Unfortunately, that disagreement had expired by a 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 there 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, in order to tie the hands of the administration, which of course, you know, will not succumb to such”.

The Minister announced that the FCT administration would continue to demolish any new constructions on the land that are not in line with the agreement.

“No amount of blackmail will stop us. You know, people are going to use government to make money. We are saying that nobody should know. We are not saying that people should not make money. But do things in a way that is supposed to be done”.

He warned residents and developers to desist from any further construction, as any structures built without authorization would be demolished.

“And so we sent the Department of Development Control to come here and demolish every construction going on. And they will continue to do. And I appeal to those who do not understand, or who may not have known, not to be fooled. Anybody who is doing anything here now, is at his own risk. It will go down”.

Wike assured residents that the FCT administration would invite them for a meeting next week to explain the plans for the estate.

He emphasised that the administration’s intention was not to take anyone’s property but to regularise the ownership.

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