THISDAY

Abuja Developer: Wike Can’t Intimidate Me, He Has No Address Outside Politics

- Chuks Okocha in Abuja

An Abuja land developer and former House of Representa­tives member, Hon Linus Ukachukwu, accused the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike of working to take his duly allocated lands to favour some Lebanese land developers.

Ukachukwu accused Wike of not having an address outside the political arena and as such, lacked the capacity to intimidate him over his recently demolished Abuja property.

Ukachukwu, who questioned the motive of the minister to ridicule his efforts in developing Abuja, said he was given a national honour in 2003 on account of his pioneering role in Abuja property developmen­t.

Besides questionin­g Wike on his address, Ukachukwu asked where was Wike when he was honoured in 2003 for his contributi­ons to housing developmen­t.

Ukachukwu, who spoke in an interview on AIT on Wednesday accused Wike and a former minister of the FCT, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai of collaborat­ing with Lebanese developers to take away his land.

Ukachukwu spoke following the minister’s press conference on Tuesday during which Wike accused the Ukachukwu brothers of manipulati­ng the system to get favourable judgments for themselves at the expense of the public good.

But reacting yesterday, Ukachukwu said, “As far back as 2003, I had a national honour as a result of what I had been doing in the housing sector in Abuja. In 2005, my brother had a similar honour.

“How can you call Linus Ukachukwu and Nichoas Ukachukwu land grabbers? We need a serious apology from Wike. Where was Wike in 2003, when a national honour was given to me as a result of developing Abuja? Where was he?

"Is it because of these fake opportunit­ies that they have in the country that lead them to come on television and start harassing the citizens? When you talk of integrity we never go into shady deals,” he said.

Explaining how he got the land, Ukachukwu said: “This land was given in the nineties. I gave the documents showing the ministeria­l approval to AIT.

“Along the way because of the size of the land, El-Rufai came in and intimidate­d the first person (allotee) that they gave that land and did all manners of things to try to take that land from him.

“At the end of the day, they went to EFCC, went to court and the court discharged the guy and said there is no forgery on the document. They went to court of Appeal, EFCC lost and they gave up and gave the Certificat­e of Clearance to the initial person that the land was allocated to.

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