Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta on Thursday appeared before the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee, investigating the alleged land swap, allocations and racketeering in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Speaking, Nta disclosed that during investigations, a total of 61 houses were seized from an official of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSDC).
According to him, the agency had swung into action following a formal complaint from the Commandant General of the NSDC, Dr. Ade Abolurin, who personally visited him on May 15.
He said the C-G complained that some officials of the Corps were involved in selling lands illegally to unsuspecting members of the public, claiming the existence of a housing estate scheme in Abuja and Nasarawa State.
His words: “Impressed by the action of the Commandant General of the Corps who reported his own officials for alleged wrong doings and demanding for an independent investigation, I commenced an immediate investigation by directing the Special Squad I set up on land matters to swing into action and the team even started with some officers who the CG came with.
“We made findings, we made efforts to get additional information from other government agencies and banks which assisted us immensely in the course of our investigations.
Nta said in the course of the investigation, “we established that six different companies were used in the scam, we froze the banks’ accounts of certain officers and the companies used, we seized several property, including 61 houses, 45 plots of land and a duplex traced to some of the officers.
“Interestingly, the 61 houses made up of 40 units of three bedroom flats, 20 units of two bedroom flats and a duplex were seized from a single officer”.
He disclosed that all the suspected officers had been released on administrative bail, adding that one was on the run.
Nta said the officers used the NSCDC’s Co-operative Society to swindle the members of the public, since the transactions took place within the premises of the FCT Command of the Corps located at Gudu district.
When asked whether the 186 victims of the scam would get any form of compensation, he said “That is beyond our power, the final decision rests on court, ours is to arrest, investigate and prosecute, but as we speak, we have established abuse of office against some of the officers investigated, it is the court that will now decide their fate.”
Chairman of the Committee, Bimbo Daramola, while expressing satisfaction with the submission of the ICPC boss, promised that the panel would assist in getting to the root of the menace of land scam in the FCT.
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