A physically-challenged 71-year-old lawyer, Mr. Isaac Kilanko has narrated how his property was fraudulently taken over and re-allocated to WEMA Bank without his consent by some officials of the Federal House Authority ( FHA), under the Ministry of Works and Housing, Abuja.
After several efforts to get his building back, he said the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC ) investigated the alleged fraudulent practices levelled against the FHA after a report was lodged, and it confirmed that the said building was reallocated fraudulently, and mandated the FHA to hand over the property to the rightful owner.
However, the lawyer, in a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari; his Chief of Staff, Prof. Sulu Gambari; Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Corruption, Prof Itse Sagay; Executive Chairman of ICPC; Nigerian Bar Association; human rights organisations and all well-meaning Nigerians, stated that despite the order by the ICPC, and several letters written, the FHA has remained adamant and refuser to hand over his property to him.
Armed with copies of documents to buttress his ownership of the property, the lawyer in the petition, aims to draw the attention of the public to the alleged wickedness, injustice, and untold pain inflicted on him by officials of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA).
He said, “For the avoidance of doubt and in brevity, I wish to state the facts as follows: I paid and was allocated house number 166 1st Avenue, in Lugbe Estate, Abuja. I exercised my right of ownership and gave the house out to a tenant, who occupied the house for more than eleven years, and no sooner had the tenant moved out of the property than the FHA re-entered into it and fraudulently reallocated it to another occupier, (allegedly WEMA BANK).
“Since then, I have written many letters to the management of the FHA without acknowledgement of any of the letters. The matter was then referred to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). The ICPC investigated the case and confirmed my ownership of the house in question.
“I was therefore invited to the ICPC office in Abuja on August 3, 2016, to meet with the FHA officials, who were supposed to hand over my property to me. Unfortunately, no official of FHA was present and with the mandate that the house be handed over to City Law Firm, my solicitor, I left Abuja.”
Referring to the Nigerian Tribune of 27th February 2018, page 14 captioned ‘Minister of Housing Save my Soul’, I appealed to the Federal Minister of Works & Housing to look into the matter of my seized property, and ‘The Nation’ of Sunday, September 23rd, 2018, page 54 with the heading ‘Visually-Impaired lawyer seeks Fashola’s intervention on seized property’, the 71-year-old, Mr. Kilanko lamented that the issue of his seized property by the FHA has been dragging on for upwards of 7 years with concomitant costs and risks to his life and members of his family.
“I travelled by road with my son to Abuja a number of times; I spent enormous amounts of money on advertisements and sending mails by courier. I was denied my means of livelihood, putting my fundamental human rights to life in danger. I have been going through a lot of trauma and deprivation. I, therefore, call on Mr President, and the Federal Minister of Works and Housing to redress the insufferable situation I have been in”, he said.
