Abuja Land Swap Deal: Bala Mohamed in Trouble...

The former FCT Minister Senator Bala Mohamed is a troubled man. He is so troubled that he is indeed losing sleep seriously wondering how he got it so wrong. Not a few of his policies and programmes have come under strong criticism from his successor, Muhammed Musa Bello who has continued to wonder whether there was indeed a government in FCT before he came to power. One of such areas was the lighting of Abuja streets. The Minister on assumption of office wondered what happened to all the city’s street lights.

 Unknown to him, the contracts had been awarded but tget were executed until very late in the Bala Mohammed administration when it was obvious that he would not be coming back. This seemed to have summed up the situation with a lot of projects under the last administration. The street lights were haphazardly done leaving the impression that the government was in a hurry to award the contracts but not in a hurry to provide the amenities.


When a few days back the FCT Minister decided to visit the Karshi -Apo Road which had been awarded since 2011, more revelations came. The road construction contract was given out without a design. It was a very important road, so important that the minister had faced a barrage of inquiries and petitions over it. He went there himself in a surprise visit. The contractor was not on sight but that was the story. The story according to the minister was that the road being constructed was leading to nowhere. Musa Muhammed Bello, who could not hide the heaviness in his hearts did not blame Bala Mohammed directly but he blamed all who took part in ensuring that the project which was a good concept did not see the light of the day five years after the mobilization money was paid. Abujareporters.com gathered that the issue of Abuja land swap deal has been taken to the President twice as the Minister claimed that the land deal was fraught with monumental fraud and that there was the need for the project to be comprehensively reviewed as many of those who were given land were cronies and associates of the former minister as well as friends of the former government who have not been able to do anything tangible on the land, whereas the people whose land were appropriated are asking for hundreds of billions of Naira in compensation.