Sometime in 1998 when I was the Site Officer controlling Garki II District in the Development Control Department, a re-submission for building plans approval was made for a plot in my district. As soon as I wrote the site inspection report, another submission came, the second one was new, for the same plot, but bearing a different name. I immediately understood that there was a double allocation. The first allocation was made to Taj Worldwide Ltd in 1993, and the second one in 1997, to Zakari Audu.
The first allocated, had not only obtained the Certificate of Occupancy, but also made a submission for building plans approval at the Development Control. However due to some technical observations on the designs, the Control Department sent comments to the Developer to effect corrections before approval could be granted. It was within that period that the second allocation was made on the same plot.
In all fairness, there was no ground whatsoever that should warrant any revocation of the first allocation, which would pave the way for a reallocation of the plot to another party. More so infrastructure was not yet provided to the site.
Therefore, I submitted a report, which was subject to approval, stating that there was a double allocation, and because the owner of the first allocation had a record of submission and interaction with the Development Control, and infrastructure was not yet provided to the plot, it is recommended that building plan approval be granted to Taj Worldwide, by virtue of being the first allocated, while the second Zakari Audu be given a substitute elsewhere.
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But because of covert interest, a revocation letter to the first allocated was sent, with an order to continue with the design approval process for the second allocated.
Whatever belonged to Taj Worldwide on the site was immediately removed. I was scolded, what prevented me from being queried due to my initial recommendation was because no technical fault was found in my report, based on the reality of the situation. Even when the people in authority had full knowledge that there was a subsisting allocation, they felt that they were powerful enough to overrun whoever owned the plot. But, time changes, and it eventually spoke.
It was not long after, when there was a change of government, which ushered in Late Gen. Mamman Kontagora as the new minister. Because of many complaints on land matters, Kontagora set up a special committee for review, and the director was removed. From the address, it was discovered that Zakari Audu was only a purported name, for the unjust acquisition of the plot. The title of Taj Worldwide was subsequently reinstated.
When the Taj Worldwide Chairman, Alhaji Lawal Idris, came following up his case, I was summoned to the office of the acting director, to be introduced to him, on his request to see the officer that wrote the objective report on the case, without even knowing the owner. Subsequently, I understood him as an astute elderly citizen, with a very hard-fighting spirit.
Gen. Kontagora’s tenure didn’t last long enough to ensure the implementation of the report’s recommendations. The subsequent government reversed the reinstatement and allocated a substitute plot with a bigger size to Taj Worldwide, the chairman rejected, and vowed that, even if he is given the whole of Abuja, he would never accept, unless his title is returned. He said he could spend N1 million to fight for N100,000 that is rightly his. The financial value doesn’t matter, but his right and integrity. He took the matter to court and also filed complaint to EFCC. The matter became fresh.
I was invited to the EFCC as a witness. I couldn’t imagine that I would be greeted respectfully at the EFCC by my former boss, who was enmeshed in the official fraud. Time, is a very silent, but accurate executioner. Both of us were out of service, otherwise, giving such evidence would earn me castigation when he was exercising power. Such is the way the cookie crumbles, according to James Hadley Chase.
Meanwhile, the purported Zakari Audu had already built a three-floor structure on the site. If the court verdict was declared against him, which was imminent, he would lose the land and the development, a double jeopardy. The best option for him was to request an out-of-court settlement. Whatever would be the terms of the settlement would be better than such a monumental loss.
It took the intervention of an elder statesman whom the Taj chairman respects before he agreed to the out-of-court settlement. Finally, what was coughed up was a whopping N110 million to settle the dispute of a title the innocent man bought at N3.5 million.
This is just a salient caution to those intending to buy an unjustly revoked and reallocated title to beware and look before they leap.
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