Senior Special Assistant to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister on Public Communication and New Media, Lere Olayinka, has blamed PDP elders, including Chief Bode George, for the party’s failure to pay Ground Rent for 28 years.
In a statement in Abuja on Saturday, Olayinka cautioned George against blaming FCT Minister Nyesom Wike.
Olayinka recalled that Chief Bode George, a former member of the PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC) responsible for the stalled purchase of the Wadata Plaza National Secretariat, had claimed on national television that “Wike has crossed the red line by revoking the PDP’s national secretariat in Abuja.”
George had warned that Wike’s action was an open declaration of war against the PDP.
In response, Olayinka expressed disappointment that elders like George would “play the ostrich on a matter so glaring as the revocation of 4,794 land titles for not paying Ground Rent for as much as 43 years.”
He questioned, “Why didn’t the PDP pay Ground Rent for 20 years on its Plot No. 243 national secretariat (under construction), which is the only property belonging to the party among the 4,794 revoked titles? How’s government’s enforcement of the consequences of land title owners’ refusal to pay Ground Rent declaration of war? Should the FCTA under Wike have treated PDP differently from the 4,794 owners of land titles that were revoked over failure to pay Ground Rent?”
Olayinka clarified that the Wadata Plaza property used as the PDP national secretariat is not owned by the party but by Senator Samaila Mamman Kurfi, who purchased it from Wadata Enterprises Nigeria Limited.
He explained, “The PDP offered to buy the Wadata Plaza property in 2005 and when the Minister’s Consent was sought, the party was asked to pay N26.9 million. The money was never paid. The party wrote a letter to Malam Nasir El-Rufai, the FCT Minister then, to waive the payment, claiming that it lacked the financial capacity to pay, but he (El-Rufai) insisted the party must pay.”
Olayinka continued, “El-Rufai, who insisted PDP must do the right thing by paying the necessary fees to the government was a member of the party then, and Chief Bode George, who was in the PDP NWC, did not go to national television to accuse him (El-Rufai) of declaring war against the party. And if the owner of did not pay ordinary N2.8 million as 28 years Ground Rent, who is to blame? On the PDP national secretariat at Central Area, is it the fault of Wike that a mere N7.6 million was owed as 20 years Ground Rent despite that over N21 billion was raised in 2014 for the completion of the building?”
While urging George to act as an objective elder, the FCT Minister’s spokesperson added, “what should have been done was to seek information, rather than going on television to advertise hatred against a Minister who is simply doing his jobs without looking at people’s faces.”
“If Chief Bode George had sought necessary information and refrained from acting out of hatred for Wike, it would have been known to him that also affected by the revocation were government-owned institutions like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Borno State Government, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), National Universities Commission (NUC), Kaduna State Government, Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Federal Ministry of Environment, Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, University of Calabar and Nigerian Postal Service and Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). And like I asked earlier, if Chief Bode George were to be the FCT Minister, would he have treated PDP differently from the other 4,793 land title owners?”
On loyalty and commitment to the PDP, Olayinka noted that the results in Wike’s Rivers State and George’s Lagos State were already speaking volumes.
