ICPC seizes 61 houses from NSCDC official

Chairman of the Independent Corrupt
Practices and other related Offences
Commission (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta on
Thursday appeared before the House of
Representatives Ad-hoc Committee,
investigating the alleged land swap, allocations and racketeering in the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT). Speaking, Nta disclosed that during
investigations, a total of 61 houses were
seized from an official of the Nigeria
Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSDC). According to him, the agency had swung
into action following a formal complaint
from the Commandant General of the NSDC,
Dr. Ade Abolurin, who personally visited
him on May 15. He said the C-G complained that some
officials of the Corps were involved in
selling lands illegally to unsuspecting
members of the public, claiming the
existence of a housing estate scheme in
Abuja and Nasarawa State. His words: “Impressed by the action of the
Commandant General of the Corps who
reported his own officials for alleged wrong
doings and demanding for an independent
investigation, I commenced an immediate
investigation by directing the Special Squad I set up on land matters to swing into
action and the team even started with some
officers who the CG came with. “We made findings, we
made efforts to get
additional information from other
government agencies and banks which
assisted us immensely in the course of our
investigations. Nta said in the course of the investigation,
“we established that six different
companies were used in the scam, we froze
the banks’ accounts of certain officers and
the companies used, we seized several
property, including 61 houses, 45 plots of land and a duplex traced to some of the
officers. “Interestingly, the 61 houses made up of
40 units of three bedroom flats, 20 units of
two bedroom flats and a duplex were
seized from a single officer”. He disclosed that all the suspected officers
had been released on administrative bail,
adding that one was on the run. Nta said the officers used the NSCDC’s Co-
operative Society to swindle the members
of the public, since the transactions took
place within the premises of the FCT
Command of the Corps located at Gudu
district. When asked whether the 186 victims of the
scam would get any form of compensation,
he said “That is beyond our power, the final
decision rests on court, ours is to arrest,
investigate and prosecute, but as we speak,
we have established abuse of office against some of the officers investigated, it is the
court that will now decide their fate.” Chairman of the Committee, Bimbo
Daramola, while expressing satisfaction
with the submission of the ICPC boss,
promised that the panel would assist in
getting to the root of the menace of land
scam in the FCT.