FG marks New PDP HQ for demolition

The Federal Government has, through the Federal Capital Development Authority, marked the  national secretariat of the New Peoples Democratic Party at  the Maitama District in  Abuja for demolition.

Inscriptions on the wall and the gate of the building   on 4, Oyi River Crescent, show    that it was marked on October 11, 2013.

Our correspondent, who visited the area on Monday, noticed  that an agency of the FCDA, Development Control, used red ink to inscribe the demolition notice on the wall and the gate of the building.

However, an Armoured Personnel Carrier, hitherto  stationed close to the building  and  a Police Monitoring  van   have  been  removed.

Only a riot policeman was seen  moving  round the area when our correspondent visited.

However, the FCDA has unsealed the Adamawa State Governor’s Lodge, where the New PDP relocated after its Oyi River Crescent office was sealed off  by the police.

 Investigations by our correspondent showed that the FCDA took the action when the  New PDP  said it had accepted the ruling of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja,which on Friday ordered it to stop using the name,  PDP,  in its activities.

 The lodge is located on Katsina Ala Street in Maitama District of Abuja.

 It was   sealed off  two weeks ago by the FCDA on the grounds that the New PDP   was using it for political activities, an action it said was against the approval granted for  the  building of the lodge.

 A private security man, who spoke with our correspondent at the lodge, said that policemen drafted to the building left last weekend.

“The policemen stopped coming since Thursday last week and we don’t know why they stopped coming. But we have not seen them since then,” he said.

 Five riot policemen were drafted to the building by the FCDA in a move aimed at stopping the faction of the PDP from using the building for its meetings.

 Speaking on the plan to demolish the secretariat, the spokesperson for the New PDP, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze,  said it was an attempt by the Minister of the FCT, Sen. Bala Mohammed, to satisfy his paymaster.

 He also said the minister was determined to weaken the opposition, an action he said would fail.

 Eze said, “This will show the level of desperation  which the PDP officials and the FCT  Minister   want to use to attack and kill opposition in the country. But it will fail. It can’t weaken us.  “What is the reason   for the move to  demolish a building that has its plan and other documentation that are intact, including the certificate of occupancy. This is nothing but desperation.

 “But it is expected. A government that has no value for the rule of law can go to any extent to perpetrate any evil. We wait to see what would happen next.”

 Perhaps, in order to weaken the opposition, the Federal Government started using the FCDA to threaten the members of the New PDP some weeks ago.

The FCT administration had   revoked the Certificate of  Occupancy of a building belonging to   Alhaji Rabiu  Kwakwanso,  one of the seven governors behind  the New PDP.

An  event centre, A-Park, owned  by Sen. Aisha Al-Hassan, a staunch member of the   faction  has also  been marked for demolition.

The event centre is located near the OAU Quarters in Maitama District.

A former Governor of Gombe State, Sen. Danjuma Goje,   had his  security details withdrawn for allegedly showing support to the PDP faction.

The  security details of a former Governor of Kwara State, Sen. Bukoka Saraki, who is also  a member of the faction,  were withdrawn by the Police authorities.

Saraki is also being  investigated by the Special Fraud Unit, an arm of the Police, over alleged bonds he took while in office.

It was also gathered that the Police in Bayelsa State had declared  the chairman of the faction in the state, Chief Richard Kpodo, and secretary, Sivi Godswill,  wanted.

 Apart from them, other high ranking members of the party in the state were said to have been declared wanted for allegedly belonging to a political party alien to the Independent National Electoral Commission.


Source: Punch

The Federal Government has said it will not demolish the national secretariat of the New Peoples Democratic Party, being led by Abubakar Baraje, if the owner of the building reverts to its original plan.

It said the owner of the building must stop using it as a commercial building.

Public Relations Officer of Development Control, an agency under the Federal Capital Territory Development Authority, Mr. Kalu Emetu, said this in an interview with reporters in Abuja on Tuesday.

“We marked it in order for the owner to revert it to its original status. When this is done, there would be no demolition,” he said.

The FCTDA said that the building, located at No. 4, Oyi River Crescent, Maitama District in the FCT, would be demolished for violation of land use.

The Director of Development Control of the FCT, Alhaji Yahaya Yusuf, said the location of the building was meant strictly for residential purposes and that converting it to a party secretariat had violated the Abuja master plan.

Yusuf said that it was not only the New PDP secretariat that might be demolished, but about 202 other buildings in the capital city and that all the affected buildings would be pulled down if their owners refused to revert to the original plan.

But the National Publicity Secretary of the Baraje-led PDP, Chief Chukwuemeka Eze, challenged the FCT on the planned demolition.

Eze said, “Let them go ahead and demolish the building. We can assure them that we are going to rebuild the building with money from the Federal Government of Nigeria.

“We will sue them for wilful destruction and they will be made to know that the building belongs to a Nigerian citizen with constitutional rights to own property in any part of the country, including the Federal Capital Territory.

“The FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, is on an agenda to destroy President Goodluck Jonathan, because under no circumstances would a cabinet minister embark on such destructive mission.

“The minister has been mandated by some forces to find a way of destroying President Jonathan and he has happily embarked on that mission. That is why he is doing something that is not expected of a normal person.”

He said the minister did not have the powers he was arrogating to himself.