The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has challenged the residents of Abuja to provide evidence of the ownership of the land allegedly grabbed by him.

Wike was recently accused of land grabbing in the nation’s capital.

This followed the minister’s declaration that all shanties in Abuja would be removed to ensure the security of lives and properties in the country’s capital.

Wike, while addressing occupants of a shanty village in the Wuye area of Abuja, said he was more concerned with the security implications of having settlements with no identifiable occupants in Abuja and would not succumb to threats and blackmail from any quarter.

The minister, in reaction to the allegations via a statement issued by his spokesman, Lere Olayinka, on Saturday, November 16, 2024, said the occupants were on the land without approval.

Olayinka stated: “If supposed educated people are going about calling removal of shanties that are posing security threats to the people land grabbing, obviously, their education is a waste.

“People just saw lands that are not occupied and moved there without authorisation from anyone. Under the trees, they built houses with planks, covered them with tarpaulin.

“For instance, when the FCT Minister visited the shanty in Wuye, which shared fence with a residential estate and is close to a rail line, the occupants were honest enough to admit that they had no authority from anyone to live there. They also admitted that previous governments had cleared the shanty 21 times and that the recent one was the 22nd time.

“The occupants’ only request from the FCT Ministry is for them to be relocated to somewhere else, and a meeting was held with their representatives on Tuesday.

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“So if this is what our hustler-activists are referring to as land grabbing, I pity those who still see them as educated.”

Olayinka added that Wike will not give attention to “professional scammers and hustlers who are masquerading as activists.”

He said those speaking against the minister were doing so because he ignored them and is making the “Yahoo Yahoo antics through which they have sustained themselves to fail”.

The minister’s spokesman said: “While growing up as a child in the hilly town of Okemesi Ekiti, one of the lessons I learned from my grandfather was never to wrestle with pigs. He was constantly telling us that the danger of wrestling with a pig will be that at the end of the fight, sane minds won’t be able to differentiate between you and the pig you fought with.

“Therefore, as a matter of principle, we won’t dignify some people with any response.

“This is more so that we know how a certain emergency activist diverted election money to purchase a petrol station. We know how some so-called activists have fought themselves over protest money, including the one in 2019.

“In 2016, when I was contesting for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) National Publicity Secretary, someone approached me, telling me that there would be a lot of money to be made if I emerged. He said all I needed was for us to work together and that he would be the one to source information to be used to issue press statements against public office holders. His would be to approach the public officeholders concerned and get money out for us.

“Today, that fellow is one of those parading themselves as activists. Therefore, we won’t dignify them.

“Unfortunately for these hustler activists, Wike is not one who plays that kind of game, and that’s the reason they are frustrated.

“Therefore, the Minister will keep ignoring them and focusing on his jobs, delivery of which can be seen across the FCT.”

The Star