Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, has alluded that Nigerians have character issue.
Wike made this uncomplimentary allusion at a press briefing while speaking on the rancour between him and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the SNECOU Group Limited, Chief Nicholas Ukachukwu.
The latter whose investments on 214 hectares of land in the Asokoro district were demolished by the FCT had earlier accused the minister of victimizing him because he’s an Igbo man.
Ukachukwu threw the allegation at the minister in an interview with Channels Television where he also said, “Wike called for a meeting over the land, we went with our documents after seeing what we had with our lawyer and other company, Sunrise which they gave part of that land. Wike said that there is nothing on this that the court should take its effect.”
Reacting to the charge, the ex-governor expressed concern about alleged bad ways of Nigerians saying, “Why do we behave like this in this country? We keep doing the same thing and expect different result. If you transfer a director, he would say, ‘Oh! It’s because I am Hausa! If you transfer another one, he would say, ‘It’s because I am a Muslim’, but why?”
He also stated, “I have been doing this before. I will continue to do it. And nothing will happen. Criminals are criminals. They may come in different ways.
“I have never seen people like land-grabbing people in this place. I came in, (I met) so many petitions. One company came with different petitions, with different owners of properties. I summoned all of them. They came with their lawyers, senior advocates.
And I said look what is this? Companies presented their own cases. Company A presented their own case, company B presented their own, company C, company D, Company E, I said okay, I’m going to seek advice from external solicitors. I’m not going to take advice from insiders … because the biggest (fraud) is that the Land Department has been compromised. I sought the views of senior lawyers and told them, we need to do things differently…
“This land, by this so-called ethnic jingoist, talked about, was allocated when there was no minister. The minister left on May 29, 2023. By June the land was allocated by the director of lands.
“We all met and agreed that nobody should do anything on the land until we are able to take a final decision. You know what happened? These guys thought they were too smart and they started selling the land.”
