Land scam: How two NSCDC officers swindled Nigerians

Barely one week after the Commandant-General of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Dr. Ade Abolurin, denied complicity in the sale of lands at the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, an official of NSCDC, yesterday, testified that a couple, Edike Daniels and his wife used the name of the corps to sell plots around FCT to unsuspecting members of the public.

The couple who run a private company called Dynamy Nigeria Limited were both directors in the company.
The NSDC official, Mrs. Nnenna James with the rank of DSC who testified before the committee investigating land racketeering in Abuja, said she had personally written payment receipts to over 50 individuals who paid for their plots of land in the NSCDC commandant’s office.

She said the then FCT commandant, Rabe Sa’idu re-posted her from the Operation department to the Housing, to facilitate the transactions.

However, when ACG Rabe Sa’idu was asked by the committee chairman, Rep Bimbo Daramola (APC, Ekiti) whether Mrs. James was re-posted from her previous department to the Housing, he admitted approving her relocation, as requested by Edike Daniels, whose company was selling the lands.

Similarly, the solicitor of Dynamy Nigeria Limited, Mr. Benard Ben confessed to the committee that the company has Edike Daniels and his wife as the sole directors even as they were also staff of the NSCDC.

The solicitor pointed out that ACG Rabe Sa’idu gave “tacit approval” to three companies to start selling lands on behalf of the corps.

He further stated that Dynamy liaised with one of the companies in selling the lands to the public.
Mr. Ben listed the Christian Fellowship of NSCDC, the Faith Winners Properties Limited and Bescolak, TNT as the three companies that were directed to take up the Corps name in selling lands. But when asked to produce the copy of the approval by the NSCDC, the solicitor insisted that it was issued through a “tacit approval,” a claim that was out rightly rejected by the committee.

He maintained that the land, located at Goze, on Airport Road, upon which the FCDA demolished roofing-level buildings of the victims, was duly registered with AEGIS, after Dynamy purchased the property from one Alhaji Sharif’s Clifton company.

Acording to him, after the demolition, the Solicitor, the FCT department of Compensation and Resettlement had written the company of their readiness to pay compensation, since the land was acquired by the Federal Government for a centenary edifice.

This was even as some victims had earlier given their accounts of how they bought the lands within the FCT commandant office.

Consequently, this made the committee to summon one Mrs James, as she was blamed to have led and facilitated the transactions. While giving her own testimony, the senior officer acknowledged her involvement in the transaction process, after her transfer to the Housing department by the FCT commandant.

She however said all that she acted was a directive from her own senior officer in rank, Edike Daniels, who has the ownership of the Dynamy company that sell the lands.

Chairman of the committee, Bimbo Daramola after the submission by the trio of Dynamy Solicitor, the ACG Rabe Sa’idu and DPC Mrs James, asked the Commandant General of NSCDC, Ade Bolurin, who was also present at the hearing, about the involvement of NSCDC staff in selling lands of a company within the Corps’ premises.

The CG described the whole act as “a pathetic situation, sad and not pleasant” to have occurred within NSCDC office, and involving some of his staff, adding that ever since the time of hearing about the story, the Corps took appropriate measures of trashing out those involved.

He reiterated that after setting up a committee of investigation, the matter was transferred to the ICPC, to further distanced the Corps’ from involvement in the matter.

The committee while asking for the appearance of the Dynamy directors, was told that Edike Daniels has left the country earlier this year. As such, chairman of the committee summoned the wife to appear before the committee, who is also a director of the company, even as she is a staff of the NSCDC.