Hotline: 08135535423 Works on Malaysian Gardens resume next month -Cost jumps from $600m to $1bn
Against all odds and litigations involving Global Formwork, the developer of the Malaysian Gardens located in Saraji District of the Federal Capital City (FCC), the developer said works will resume on the 14,085-housing unit project in July. Works on Malaysian Gardens estimated to house between 50,000 and 70,000 people have been suspended for almost a decade.
In April 2004, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and Global Formwork entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a modern city in Abuja. Subsequently, a development lease agreement was executed on July 2, 2004 for a parcel of land measuring 510 hectares for this development.
This agreement call for the establishment of a modern city in Abuja with state-of-theart facilities and amenities as expected of any modern city of the civilized world such as the United States of America, except that this one has a combination of the Malaysian and Nigerian touch.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo did the ground breaking ceremony of the vast estate on October 3, 2006. The Malaysian Gardens was estimated to cost over $600 million.
The estate meant to be a full scale residential housing project is the first full collaboration between Nigerians and Malaysians to develop a residential housing complex of this scale using foreign management systems and technology and indigenous Nigerian products.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo while in office visited Malaysia and was fascinated by the housing models there and thereafter decided to import the housing model into the country using the FCT as testing ground.
The housing project, however, suffered a major delay due to ligation involving the developer and FCTA which has lasted for a decade.
The bone of contention is a whopping 510 hectares of land leased to Messrs Global Formwork in 2004. Under the agreement, it was expected that within 10 years, the lessee would develop and sell 14,085 housing units to members of the public.
In an advertorial in the Daily Trust newspaper of November 14, 2012, the Malaysian embassy accused FCT Minister Bala Mohammed of stalling the project because of the developer’s alleged refusal to meet his demands which included to be given 400 hectares of the land for his personal use and to drop the Igbo partners in Messrs Global Formwork Limited. While responding the FCTA said the developers were crying foul when indeed it is the FCT that should.
However, respite came the way of the developer when the court granted it an injunction on 21st February 2014 restraining the respondent (FCTA) and its agents, privies and officers from threatening or revoking the grant (land) made to the company.
The ruling made by Arbitral Panel which sat in Abuja was jointly signed by Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), Chief JHC Okolo (SAN) and Senator Abubakar Sodangi. It ordered the respondent to grant and endorse all final approvals required in respect of all the relevant working plans and drawings entered into with the developer under the Development Lease Agreement.
“We order both claimant and respondents within one month of the publication of this award to agree on what constitutes primary and arterial infrastructure by the respondent and secondary and tertiary infrastructure by the claimant,” the ruling read.
The court asked FCTA to take immediate steps to ensure peaceable possession and use of the area of land in question to Global Formwork as well as prevent villagers (original owners of the land) which the court said had already been compensated by the developer from further disrupting the claimants work on the estate.
Charles Obi Enekwechi, Special Assistant to the Executive Chairman of Malaysian Gardens, said that the Malaysian Gardens is an offshoot of Global Formwork which registered as a Civil Engineering company specializing in estate development came into being in 2004 after the ground breaking ceremony was performed by the then President Obasanjo.
He said that the company took its rightful position and commenced work with the erection of block of flats and bungalows. He said with the commencement of works on the site surfaced litigation which came with multifaceted interests that turned the site into a subject of litigations and barefaced falsehood.
He said, “We give our commitment to the provision of affordable housing to Nigerians, especially the low income earners that constitute 65.7 percent of the Nigerian workforce.
“Low income 60 percent, Medium 25 percent and high Income houses 15 percent, including those in the Diaspora to own houses of their choice with all essential and year round functional amenities.”
Malaysian Gardens consist of four residential precincts, commercial centre, public utilities and amenities such as bridges, underground shopping complex, a five star hotel, police and fire stations among others.
Daily trust observed that the vast estate has been overgrown with weeds with abandoned