ACN decries land tussle between Patience, Turai

Friday, 27 July 2012 00:00 Editor News - National


ALLEGING show of shame, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has faulted the legal tussle between the incumbent First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan and her predecessor Turai Yar’Adua over a plot of land in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

The party said the crisis was a study in “despicable sycophancy, insider abuse, arbitrariness and manifestation of the culture of impunity all of which have become the hallmarks of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan.”

In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the ACN said in more decent climes this scandal would have seen the immediate exit of the FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed, from the cabinet and severely affected the political fortunes of President Jonathan.

It added: “While the party is not holding brief for Turai Yar’Adua, it is clear from the court records that the disputed land was first duly allocated to her non-governmental organisation: Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation by the FCT Minister and a statutory right of occupancy duly issued under the hand of the same minister.

“From the same court records, the organisation paid all levies and dues running into several hundreds of millions of naira. However shortly after, the minister without reasons issued a notice of revocation of the said property ostensibly on grounds of overriding public interest only to swiftly re-allocate the same land to another non-governmental organisation the African First Ladies Peace Centre believed to belong to the current First Lady Patience Jonathan.’

According to the party, “any close observer of the FCT administration under the watch of Senator Bala Mohammed will know that this is vintage Bala Mohammed, a man who will do anything to remain in the good books of President Jonathan.

“It will be recalled that a short while ago the ACN condemned in very strong terms the decision of the same minister to name an extension of the Maitama District after President Jonathan even when no such honour was bestowed on former head of states especially those whose contributions to the development of Abuja as the federal capital are glaring and undeniable.”

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