ACN berates Patience, Turai on Abuja land tussle

Posted by admin Abuja (FCT), Action Congress of Nigeria, First Ladies, Party Politics, Patience Jonathan, State News, Top Stories, Turai Yar'Adua, Women Politics Friday, July 27th, 2012

Action Congress of Nigeria has condemned the legal tussle between Mrs. Patience Jonathan and her predecessor, Mrs. Turai Yar’Adua, over a plot of land in Abuja.

ACN said, “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 on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the ACN was not holding brief for Yar’Adua.

It said, “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 Minister for the Federal Capital Territory 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 FCT minister, without reasons, issued a notice of revocation of the said property ostensibly on the 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, Dame Jonathan”.

The ACN also condemned the decision of the FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed, to name an extension of the Maitama District after Jonathan, “even when no such honour was bestowed on former heads of states, especially those whose contributions to the development of Abuja as the Federal Capital are glaring and undeniable.”

According to the ACN, the entire saga has in addition revealed the “under belly of the gargantuan edifice of corruption of the PDP-led government”.

The party added, “Where for instance does the office of the First Lady source funds to buy land for over a quarter of a billion naira and award a contract for its construction for a further sum of N13,000,000,000?”wp_posts