A Coalition of Real Estate Developers in the Federal Capital Territory has appealed to President Bola Tinubu and the leadership of the National Assembly to probe the Managing Director/CEO of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Oyetunde Ojo, over alleged land grabbing, extortion and official high handedness.
They revealed this in a statement signed by the coalition’s coordinator Mr Benjamin Yamusa and publicity secretary Nofisat Kareem.
The developers said they resorted to seek the intervention of President Tinubu and the National Assembly because of “the huge financial loss we incurred and the mounting interests on the debts we got from the banks due to the deliberately-slow administrative processes of the land development approvals regime being implemented by Mr Oyetunde Ojo at the FHA.”
They claimed Mr Ojo’s stint at the FHA has so far brought about financial loss, stagnation of dozens multi-billion naira projects — all resulting from alleged land grabbing and extortion that translated into dozen ongoing court cases.
They said most of the applications pending at the FHA were on their last stages of approval, “but only to be deliberately stalled due to the encroachment of their already legally acquired lands by some land grabbers working (allegedly) in cahoots with the incumbent leadership of the FHA.”
The developers said, “The encroachment of our legally acquired lands by some elements with (alleged) full backing of Mr Oyetunde Ojo has stalled our progress, resulting into endless court cases, and mounting financial pressure due to the bank loans most of us secured for the development of the properties.”
The concerned developers said there are dozens of court cases ongoing at various High Courts in Abuja because of the alleged illegal encroachment and illlegal reallocation of most of the FHA-approved lands.
The petitioners sought President Tinubu’s intervention “to arrest the (alleged) brigandage at the FHA under Mr Oyetunde Ojo, who drops the President’s name in circumventing due process and extant rules governing land development at the FHA.”
They said the constant harassment using security agents and the never-ending litigations have overstretched their finances with some of them being threatened by their lenders over debts they incurred for the real estate development.
“Mr President, as a business-oriented leader, we are appealing to you to take a drastic action against the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), Mr Oyetunde Ojo, over his incompetence, land encroachment and extortion.
“What Mr Oyetunde Ojo is doing at the FHA currently, is not only antithetical to the laudable mandate of the organization, but also capable of derailing and sabotaging your administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda on affordable and mass housing policies for Nigerians,” the statement said.
The developers urged the relevant committees of the National Assembly’s Senate and House of Representatives to probe the activities of Mr Oyetunde Ojo at the FHA with a view to sanitize the organization and the housing sector in general.
The developers have reiterated their commitment and support to the laudable development agenda of President Tinubu.
There was no immediate comments from Mr Ojo as multiple calls to his known telephone lines did not connect.
