Why We Revoked Turai Yar'Adua's Land To Patience Jonathan - FCT Minister

MINISTER of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Bala Mohammed, has defended the action of the FCT administration in revoking the plot of land allocated to the former First Lady, Hajiya Turai Yar’Adua’s Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Women and Youth Empowerment Foundation (WAYEP) and restoring same to its original institutional owners, the African First Ladies Peace Mission for the building of its secretariat in Abuja.

Meanwhile, a social crusader and erstwhile Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Tsav, has condemned the revocation of the land earlier allocated to WAYEP.

Mohammed, yesterday also faulted the statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, at the weekend, claiming that the FCT minister took ‘a choice plot’ from WAYEP and reallocated it to the incumbent First Lady, Patience Jonathan’s NGO, African First Ladies Peace Mission.

The FCT minister described Lai Mohammed’s statement as not only misleading, but blackmail against Patience Jonathan and the FCT administration.

According to the minister in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Nosike Ogbuenyi, there is no ‘scandal’ whatsoever with regard to the altruistic corrective measure by the FCT administration to restore the land to the original allottee, the African First Ladies Peace Mission.

He said the FCT administration deserved kudos not umbrage for its effort in retrieving the land from a private NGO and returning same to its original owner, the African First Ladies Peace Mission for the development of its continental secretariat in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.

He further pointed out that the African First Ladies Peace Mission was neither owned nor sponsored by the current First Lady of Nigeria, Patience Jonathan, as wrongly claimed by the ACN publicity secretary, adding that she only inherited the project from her predecessor and would definitely handover same to her successor as First Lady.

Tsav also lauded Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nassarawa State for resisting the pressure to dump his party, Congress for Progressive Change for the Peoples Democratic Party.