The Jos Metropolitan Development Board (JMDB) has clarified its role in the controversial land scandal involving the lawmaker representing Jos North in the Plateau State House of Assembly, Hon. Adamu Aliyu, and a businessman, Abdulyekin Kabiru.
The scandal arose after Kabiru petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), seeking the agency’s assistance in recovery the sum of N75.8 million he alleged the lawmaker has taken fraudulently collected from him in a a fake land deal, in connivance with one Hassan Maimadara, who claimed to be a former local government secretary in the state.
The petition led to the ICPC launching an investigation against Aliyu who had been declared wanted two weeks before then, to ascertain his involvement in the fraud.
In the petition, Kabiru had claimed that Hon. Aliyu and Maimadara had approached him claiming they had the authority of the Plateau State government to sell a land located at Gangare area in Jos, without revealing to him that the land belonged to the JMDB, a Plateau State government agency.
According to the Jos-based businessman who is the CEO of Reedlim Global Enterprises, Aliyu and his accomplice fraudulently deceived him into paying N75.8m for the piece of land using different schemes including intimidation, blackmail and coercion.
While the petition is still raising lots of controversy, the JMDB broke its silence in a statement on Tuesday where it clarified its position in the controversial land transaction.
In the statement signed by JMDB’s Director of Estate and Building at , Barnabas Dafiel, the agency noted that the dispute centered on a parcel of land which once served as the board’s mechanical workshop before it was vandalised during a violent crises some years ago.
The agency said after remaining derelict for years, a woman began using the premises for weddings and later converted it into a school, a move the JMDB said it opposed as the location was unsafe for a school and wrote the woman to vacate the site but she bluntly refused, which led to a resolve to lease the property for development since the government lacked funds to rehabilitate it.
Dafiel said the board granted a 34-year lease to Hassanta & Sons Multi-Biz Dimension Ltd, owned by Maimadara, to allow the company build an estate consisting of seven blocks of two and three-bedroom flats, after which ownership would revert to the state government in 2058.
Dafiel also confirmed that Maimadara was introduced to the agency by Hon. Aliyu as his business partner which gave the deal a sign of integrity.
According to the JMDB official, the transaction took a different dimension when Aliyu and Maimadara allegedly began seeking to transfer the property to another investor even before securing final approval.
They were to have approached Kabiru, claiming they had the Plateau State government’s authority to dispose of the land for N50m but after getting the money, the pressured the investor to make more payment leading to a total of N75.8m.
Insisting that the transaction between Aliyu, Maimadara and Kabiru was illegal, Dafiel said as part of the lease agreement, Hassanta Ltd was not supposed to sublease the land without JMDB’s approval, emphasizing that the board was not consulted, neither was it aware of the transfer.
Dafiel also faulted both sides, saying while Aliyu and Maidara acted fraudulently, Kabiru should also have done his due diligence by going to the agency to make some verifications before making payments.
