People residing in six villages in Abuja, the
nation’s capital, have been forced by the
Federal Capital Territory Administration,
FCTA, to leave their homes and relocate
to a neighbouring Wukara community at
the Aviation Village in Abuja to pave way
for the establishment of a farm by
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and his
mother, Madam Afeni Eunice.
The large expanse of the land was
allocated to them by the Federal Capital
Territory Administration.
The farmland, measuring 95.88 hectares, is
located at the Cadastral Zone, Aviation
Village, within the Abuja Municipal Area
Council, AMAC, and was specifically
allocated to Ebele Integrated Farms Limited
by FCTA on March 8, 2012, two days
after the company applied for the land
and less than three months after it was
incorporated by the Corporate Affairs
Commission, CAC.
According to the CAC, Ebele Integrated
Farms Limited, with registration number
1003866, was registered on December 20,
2011 with a share capital of N30 million,
said Daily Trust.
The company has only two registered
directors: Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, with
share capital of N28.5 million and Madam
Afeni Eunice, with share capital of N1.5
million.
Records at the commission indicated that
the nature of business the company was
registered to execute are: “To carry on the
business of agricultural and mechanical
farming in all its branches (which include
but not limited to) crop farming, rearing of
livestock, feed milling, arable and fruit
farming, manufacturing and distribution of
agric products, flour merchants, poultry
farming, animal husbandry, fish farming,
deep sea fishing, trawling and to sell and
deal in same etc.”
However, Ebele Integrated Farms Limited,
since its registration in 2012, has no
evidence of filing annual returns with the
CAC, which is a vital requirement to be
fulfilled by all such registered companies.
The legal practitioner that filed the
application documents for the registration
of the company with the commission,
Arum Ifeyinwa Jane, provided the address
of the company’s owners, Jonathan and
Eunice, as number 23, Kolda Street, Wuse
11, Abuja.
Similar address was provided by the
company to the Abuja Geographic
Information System (AGIS) in its application
for the farmland.
However, Daily Trust reported that when its
correspondent visited the supposed
company’s address at 23 Kolda Street,
nobody around the area seemed to know
that Ebele Integrated Farms Limited or any
other company ever occupied the building
within the past ten years. A security guard
inside the compound said that the building
was owned by a telecommunication firm.
When Daily Trust visited the farm near
Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport,
Abuja, over 40 articulated vehicles
belonging to SCC Construction Company
were seen with several staff of the
company carrying out different works.
Armed soldiers and plain-cloth security
operatives were seen at strategic parts of
the farm which has a crocodile section
near the main gate, orchards, where well
irrigated mango trees provide shelter
overlooking the hill top buildings said to
be meeting and resting place for the
president.
On the other side, there is a standard fish
pond with embankment to prevent erosion.
There is also the clean water in the fish
pond recycling itself.
A short distance from there is a small
airstrip for any helicopter to land. The
airstrip is overlooking another set of
hundreds of mango trees and a small
stream with water passing through all in a
solid concrete walls round the farm.
The security operatives in the farm were
there to, among other assignments, prevent
any unauthorised person from gaining
access into the farm.
People living at the Wukara village,
workers at the SCC construction company
working in the farm, government officials
in the FCT ministry, AGIS, Development
Control Department of the FCDA and
AMAC “have all been warned not to talk
about that farm,” Daily Trust said.
The case of the displaced villagers is
pathetic. Malam Ahmadu (not real
name), who was seen resting under a
tree at the outskirt of Wukara, spoke
to our reporters.
He said: “I was residing in Sarkin
Madaki village before we were ejected
and our houses demolished. Six
villages that include Sarkin Madaki
where I hail from, Aguwan Audu,
Kukeli, Anguwan Sharuwa, Badambo
and Nasarawai, were the villages
people were sacked from and
demolished to provide space for this
farm. Yes, we knew the farm belongs
to the president but we have been
warned not to say so. They said we
must never discuss about the farm
with anyone.
“The former FCT Commissioner of
Police came in company of some top
officers and warned us at the palace
of the Aguma (village head) of
Wukara that if we ever mentioned
anything to anyone about the farm,
they will arrest the person that made
the statement and drive others from
here without compensation. I am
talking to you now because no one is
seeing us. If you had met me in the
village, I would not have talked to
you.
“When they sacked us from our
various villages, government gave us
plots of land each at Wukara. People
from all the six affected villages were
moved to Wukara. But no monetary
compensation was given to us. We
had to sell part of the land allocated
to us and build the remaining. It was
after the commissioner of police
warned us and left that we resolved
to name the farm as the Aviation
Farm.”
Another resident of Wukara, who simply
identified himself as Malam, told Daily
Trust at BasanJiya, a nearby community
where he went to buy provisions, that their
problem is not just because their villages
have been converted to the president’s
farm, but because they took away their
houses, places of worship, farmlands only
to be given a piece of land, each, in
return. “We are all farmers. None of us
had his farm replaced. How do they want
us to cultivate?
“We all had our various sources of
water before we were sacked from
our villages. Here at Wukara, we
scoop water from the ground to drink,
cook and use at home because we
have 2 boreholes that do not work.
We complained to the Aguma who
said he has written to SCC
Construction Company but nothing has
been done till date.
“Yes, they are constructing access road
for us through the bush path. We do
not want that one. Let them construct
the one that will burst near the
airport gate. That’ll be shorter and
safer for us.”
When Daily Trust visited the palace of the
Aguma of Wukara, Malam Mohammed
Sarki, the people seen around the palace
said the traditional ruler was indisposed.
One of the elders was however said:
“Nobody can speak to you about the
farm. On the issue of the road and
water, we have written to AMAC and
SCC. Go to their offices and ask
them why they refused to help us.”
Daily Trust reporters visited AMAC twice;
first the chairman was said to be in a
meeting, while on the second occasion he
was said to have gone to the FCT
ministry for official consultation.
A senior council official who pleaded
anonymity, however, said: “Look, do
not waste your time. The chairman
will never see you on this matter.
How can the president compensate
them? Advise them to come and beg
the chairman for a borehole and
clinic, that is more realistic.”
At the SCC Construction office in Utako
District, Abuja, efforts to see the project
manager were not successful.
However, a top official of the company,
who pleaded not to be identified, said that
Aguma had actually written a two-page
letter to the company, dated May 16, 2014,
requesting them to sink additional boreholes
for them, adding: “In as much as we
sympathise with the community, as
contractors, we cannot use our money to
develop their community for them.
“What they are asking for is not
provided in the contract agreement. As
a construction company, we only
employ people with skills. But we
went out of our way and employed
their people who are now working for
us. I am not privy to the contract
sum, I would have told you. But it is
a fact that what qualified us most
for this contract was what the
president saw our company did in
General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s farm
in Minna. You know, it was SCC
that constructed it also.”
Meanwhile, the development makes people
wonder if the farmland in question was
actually intended to be used as such by
the designers of Abuja.
A retired top ranking civil servant, Chief
Bisi Winsala Kolins, who said he used all
his retirement benefit to build houses in
Garki that were demolished by the FCDA
on the excuse that the area was meant
for business and not residential, averred: “I
am aware that in the Abuja master plan,
no part of the Abuja Municipal Area
Council (AMAC), including the aviation
village, is meant to be used for farming. It
is also a fact that the Abuja master plan
cannot be redesigned to accommodate any
new development. That farm must,
therefore, be demolished and relocated to
outside AMAC for justice and fair play.”
Former Minister of the FCT, Malam Nasir
el-Rufa’i, in a response from the United
Kingdom to an online inquiry by Daily
Trust, said no part of Abuja Municipal
Area is supposed to be used for farming
purposes, including the aviation village now
housing Ebele Integrated Farms.
El-Rufa’i said: “Aviation Village is self-
explanatory … it is part of Phase 5 of the
Federal Capital City (FCC) meant to
accommodate aviation company needs –
hangars, fuelling and maintenance facilities,
housing and hotels. There were no
provisions for agricultural land in the city
footprint.
“Farmlands are located outside the city in
places like Gaube, Kuje and Kwali. I am
surprised that agricultural land is being
allocated in the footprint of the FCT. This
may be another violation of the Abuja
Dream…..God Save us.”
At the Abuja Geographic Information
system (AGIS), a top official who initially
doubted claims by our reporters that the
application by Ebele Integrated Farms
Limited was approved in only two days
from the date of the application, was
shocked to see the company’s file number
MISC 117899 with AGIS.
He said: “You are right, look at the farm’s
file. Their application for the allocation of
the plot was dated March 6, 2012 and
approval given on March 8, 2012. The
initial plot number was 1680 before it was
later changed to 1683. The change in the
plot number does not affect the plot itself.
Look at the note written with red pen that
the FCT Minister attached to his approval.
“In all my years in AGIS I have never seen
an application for plot of land treated with
such a rush. If we were allowed to treat it
like the normal applications, we would
have verified the address. Even if the
address they gave was correct and they
later moved to a new address, they are
supposed to notify us of their new
address.”
Mr. Jonathan’s multibillion naira integrated
farm project has attracted a lot of
criticisms from the public, mainly because
the president’s salary and legitimate
earnings as a president could not afford
him to own a multi-billion Naira farm
project.
Credit: Shehu Abubakar/Vincent Yusuf/Daily
Trust
0 comments:
Post a Comment