For former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory [FCT], Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, there is no respite in sight as the Police authority has asked the Attorney- General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to prosecute him for official corruption and abuse of office while in office.
This is contained in Police interim investigative report on alleged corrupt practices by el-Rufai while in office, signed by Commissioner of Police, Anti-Fraud Section 'D' Department (F.C.I.D), Abuja, Moses Anegbode, which accused the former minister of under-hand dealings in the revocation and re-allocation of lands in the FCT.
Daily Sun findings revealed that the investigation on el-Rufai followed a petition from the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation to the Inspector-General of Police, accusing the former minister of official corruption and abuse of office in the handling of land allocation to NIPOST in Maitama, which he allegedly revoked and re-allocated to one of his friends.
In their recommendation, Police noted that, "From the above mentioned findings, it is obvious that government parastatals' lands were revoked and laundered at a premium. This pattern of abuse of office and manipulations of the Abuja land reforms by private interest is an affront to equity, justice and transparency.
"Finally, it is the suggestion of the investigation that the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice in this present dispensation whose stance for zero tolerance on corruption and economic crimes as well as upholding the sanctity of rule of law, transparency and equity are well known, should use his good offices to restore the NIPOST land back to the original owner, in order to minimize the huge economic loss incurred by Rosehill Group.
"Meanwhile, Mallam el-Rufai should be brought to book as nobody is above the law, by charging him to court for abuse of office, official corruption and should be made to pay appropriate compensation and restitution for the damages caused to both NIPOST and Rosehill Group, the developer, please".
NIPOST was said to have petitioned the Attorney-General of the Federation when Systems Property Development Consortium (SPDC) allegedly owned by friends of the former minister continued to develop the said property in defiance of a court order stopping all construction works on the site pending the resolution of the litigation over the land ownership.
NIPOST had reportedly gone into a partnership with a developer, Rosehill, to develop the central post office designed to serve seven districts in the FCT, and had written to the former minister for approval.The approval granted by FCDA on July 14, 2004, was relied upon for commencement of construction work in anticipation of the ministerial consent.
The Police in their findings claimed that "While they (Rosehill) were liaising with the office of the Minister of FCT, on January 20, 2006, the Development control of FCDA and a company named Systems Property Development Consortium (SPDC) jointly carried out a demolition exercise on NIPOST offices, notice board, borehole. Prior to this demolition, there was no letter of revocation of the site to NIPOST and on February 22, 2006, after the demolition of the properties on the site, ministry of FCT submitted a backdated letter of revocation of the plot to NIPOST. The letter was backdated 18th October, 2005.
"Our investigation shows that the site meant for public use as a District Post Office was allocated to an individual company SPDC which shared the same office building with el-Rufai and partners; a Quantity Surveying firm owned by the former minister of FCT at No.1 Kandi close, off Aminu Kano crescent, Wuse II, Abuja".
The petition against el-Rufai by Rosehill to NIPOST which was subsequently forwarded to the AGF had seen the former minister suing the private firm at an Abuja High Court, for defamation and asking for N450 million as damages for collateral effect of the allegations in the petition on his integrity.
In their response to the defamation suit, Rosehill group, through their counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) filed a counter-claim for N200 million damages "for the embarrassment, pains, stress and energy dissipation caused the defendants by the institution of plaintiff's frivolous action".
The defendants also claimed that el-Rufai had no name to protect, given all the scandals that had trailed all the national assignments he handled during former President Olusegun Obasanjo's government as well as his indictment for corruption and abuse of office by relevant government agencies.
In the defendants' statement of defence, they claimed that "owners of properties at the FCT were rendered homeless through compulsory acquisitions done by the plaintiff and which acquisitions were later found to have benefited him, his cronies, privies, companies and relatives".